‘My boy proved critics wrong’

THE mother of surprise All Blacks hero Stephen Donald clamed her son had proven his critics wrong with a Rugby World Cup-winning performance.

Donald was the fourth-choice All Black out-half before the World Cup began, after heavily criticised performances in the Tri-Nations.

With the team’s out-halves decimated by injury and the William Webb Ellis cup on the line, he calmly stepped up to kick a match-winning penalty before spending the rest of the match running strongly and kicking the side out of trouble.

His mother, Sheryll Donald, may have been the only New Zealander with faith in her son but seeing him rescue the flagging All Blacks side was one of the proudest moments of her life, she said.

“It was amazing. It was great,” she said.

“I spoke to him soon after the match. There is definitely joy at the win.”

Though the family have not spoken publicly about the criticism levelled at her son, they were satisfied his performance had proved the doubters wrong.

“That’s something we’ve kept amongst ourselves. He’s had a lot of upset comments. A lot of papers that have been a little bit unfair.

“He definitely proved them wrong.”

When Dan Carter and Mils Muliaina were injured Donald got the call up while on the banks of the Waikato River whitebaiting. He could never have predicted the turn of events and was so absorbed in his task he missed two calls on mobile phone from selectors.

After his call-up he said he’d kept up his fitness while enjoying watching the World Cup on TV. The next rugby he would have expected to play was in England for Bath, whom he has joined on contract. On arriving in camp, Donald shrugged off the criticisms he’d attracted throughout his career. Asked about his attitude towards the final, Richie McCaw said: “I think the key to that is expecting stuff like that to happen.

“If you hope for the best and don’t prepare for adversity when it comes or something happens you can’t deal with it. You lose a guy like DC [Dan Carter] it’s easy to drop your lip, but when the next guy stood up and the next guy... Beaver [Donald] at the end. Jeez he was composed. I take my hat off to him.”

The crowd roared when Donald’s first real act of the game was to slot a penalty.

Later he was still a tower of strength, booting the All Blacks out of danger and allowing them to claim victory.

And after the game, Henry remembered him: “Didn’t he do well. Steve Donald. Superb.”