Hosea hoping to stay in gear ahead of World Cup

New Zealand winger Hosea Gear is not taking a place in the All Blacks World Cup squad for granted, despite scoring five tries in four games on their Grand Slam tour of the Home Unions.

The Hurricanes speed merchant has been one of the sensations of the autumn internationals with his blistering pace and deceptive strength proving to be a real handful for opposition defences.

He rounded off his tour on a high note with a try double in Saturday’s Slam-clinching 37-25 success over Wales at the Millennium Stadium, to go with other tries against England and Scotland (2).

Gear, the brother of former New Zealand and Worcester man Rico, has been on the radar of Graham Henry and his coaching staff for a couple of years, he was handed his first cap against Australia in Hong Kong in 2008 and won a further cap against the Wallabies in Wellington last year.

But the 26-year-old was advised to go away and work on his game and he has proven himself a more composed and complete player in 2010.

His hat-trick for the New Zealand Maori against England in the summer was not enough to secure a Tri Nations place, but he performed impressively in helping his nation secure gold in the Rugby Sevens at the recent Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

And his progress has been such that he ended the trip to Britain and Ireland as the first choice number 11, keeping out a certain Joe Rokocoko.

But the Wellington three-quarter claimed there was still much work for him to do.

“I was just fortunate to get a bit of game time on this tour and to play better than what I did in the past,” he said.

“I have been concentrating on building on each game and trying to get better.

“I am still a bit nervous (about a place in World Cup squad). No places are really cemented, I guess. I am just going to have to build on my form going into the Super 15.”

Another man to lay down a World Cup marker for the tourists was centre Sonny Bill Williams.

The Canterbury man, who joined from French club Toulon earlier this year in order to fulfil his ambition of becoming an All Black, baffled defences with his offloading ability, creating a try on debut against England and four more against Scotland.

The former Kiwi rugby league international was not quite as impressive against Wales, with the home side’s defence flowing up to cut down his space, but he did manage to create the first try for Gear with another deft pass, and assistant coach Wayne Smith had plenty of praise for how well the 25-year-old has fitted in to the squad.

“He is a very selfless man,” said former Northampton boss Smith.

“He is exactly what you want in a team and I think he has had a great season in the ITM Cup and had a solid tour.

“Now there is a Super 15 campaign ahead of him with some very good coaches to build on a pretty good base. I think he will come through the Super 15 as a top player and there will be strong competition between Ma’a Nonu and him for that number 12 jersey.”

And Smith also reserved praise for the way Gear has taken previous criticism of his play on board and come back a better player.

“He has been a real plus of the tour,” admitted Smith.

“He has worked hard on his game the last few years, he has been professional and worked on what we requested from him, and he is getting the rewards.”