The lesson is there for the learning if you want it Conrad, nobody likes a smartarse.
The fact you reached for your hamstring as part of your "deception" was underhand, followers of pure Union expect better from the Worlds' best.
You would have been the first to complain if one of their big blokes smashed you during your little ego stroke moment.
I was quietly disappointed at the time but I'm glad others have seen fit to highlight the incident.

Smith stunned to be booed

Jim Kayes in Lyon | September 17, 2007

Conrad Smith was stunned. He'd just scored a try with a nifty side step to beat the last defender in the in-goal so he could dot down under the posts and he was being booed.

Smith had forgotten that in a battle of David and Goliath proportions the crowd, especially when many are French or Portuguese, barracks for David.

Smith might have felt his step was nifty, but the crowd thought he was rubbing salt in the wound as his try took the All Blacks' points tally to 92.

"I looked in the stand and there was a guy giving me the thumbs down and yelling at me in French," a still somewhat bemused Smith said later. "I didn't know what I'd done wrong but obviously they didn't appreciate it. I just put my head down and turned around."

Smith wasn't the only All Black to cop a bit from the lively crowd.

When Carl Hayman tried to prise the ball out of Joao Uva's hands as he lay on the ground late in the match, it was because he wanted to take a quick penalty.

The crowd judged him a bully.

Smith wasn't worried though. He'd got through the match - his first start for the All Blacks this year - without any trouble from his dodgy hamstring and finished with two tries.

He shouldn't have scored either.

"I was meant to be subbed 60 minutes but the manger [Darren Shand] got mixed messages from up top. It worked out well in the end.

"It was good to get through the game. There was plenty of running, though I didn't get to touch the ball too much in the first half, but it was good to get through the game."

Smith admitted it had been difficult not to think about just surviving the game, rather than playing well and he wasn't helped by the messy nature of the match.

The result was never in doubt and once Joe Rokocoko had scored twice in the first 11 minutes the game was regularly little more than a free-for-all.

Breaks were being made all over the field and it was hard for a more traditional type centre like Smith to fit in, especially after such a long time out.

"It's quite hard at centre to get to the ball because when you're making so many yards through the middle, everyone comes between you and the ball.

"It can get tough but I knew that was going to be the case and tried to keep my wits about me."

It was the same for the wings as Rokocoko was also seldom in the play after his initial burst of tries as the gaps were so big closer in.

"They are given a bit of licence on the wing to move around but as a centre you're always keeping the width and if the gaps keep coming the ball can never get out to you."

The All Blacks finished with 16 tries and Smith, Rokocoko and Aaron Mauger getting two each.

Mauger's first featured some wonderful skills by flankers Jerry Collins and Chris Masoe, while Smith's second try was the result of good quick hands.

Many of the tries, however, were very basic, with an inside pass after just one ruck often enough to find a yawning hole in the Portuguese defence.

"We didn't want to show too much so had pretty simple ideas about what we wanted to do," Smith said.

Fairfax Media