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Fairytale finish a work in progress
Chris Wilson - The Canberra Times
When Stephen Larkham's Test rugby career eventually flashes before his eyes, what will he see?
His 1996 Test debut against Wales in Sydney. His first Test at flyhalf in 1998, when he scored three tries against England's golden-haired boy Jonny Wilkinson.
His match-winning field goal against South Africa in the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup, which led to the ultimate victory against France.
Then there'll be tonight, his 100th Test and his last in Australia.
Yes, but Larkham's much more introspective than that.
"You have the memories of the big milestones, but there's so many other memories that were special to you but other people wouldn't understand why," he said. "Hundreds of memories, from any given game."
A keen chess player, Larkham looked as serious this week as a grandmaster about to make his next move.
The emotion of tonight's contest? Larkham seems as unflappable as Bernie, the movie corpse from which he earned a nickname.
But asked to indulge, to recall one of those personal rugby moments no one else would remember, Larkham's top lip loosens with a smile.
He describes, in detail, a move against New Zealand, when he was still a young fullback yet to transform into a flyhalf.
It was a run-around move with Tim Horan. Larkham caught the ball on his own 10m, dummied, shimmied, broke tackles in a 40m run, then kicked and forced the All Blacks to take the ball out, 5m from their own line.
"That stuff's quite special for me, but you can't really talk about that because people say you're on yourself," he said.
No chance. He's more laidback than he is lanky.
But he's also meticulous. His mother delights in telling stories of her young boy, who would bite his bottom lip when a B+ would ruin a report card full of As.
"There's a lot of things I do on the paddock that I know are quite flukey, but it probably doesn't come across that way sometimes," he said.
"So the moments where I've really thought about doing something and it has come off the way I envisaged it to come off, they're the special moments."
Larkham's Test career has been more than he imagined. He says the thought of 100 Test matches was "inconceivable", so was his transition to No10.
"I always wanted to play halfback for the Wallabies, that was my dream growing up. I suppose I looked up to Nick Farr-Jones at the time as the current Wallabies halfback and then I suppose when I got 18 or 19 George [Gregan] was the Wallaby halfback and I looked up to him."
It was Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen who switched Larkham to flyhalf, creating one of the most enduring partnership in world rugby.
"I remember Tim Horan coming up to me after the first game he played against England, saying it was the right position for him," Macqueen said. "That's the confidence players had in him."
"I think [Larkham and Gregan] are arguably the best halves combination Australia has ever had."
Larkham said he still wanted to play at fullback "even a couple of years in".
"I still felt more comfortable in that role," he explained. "It was three or four years before I actually started to feel quite comfortable at five-eighth."
Larkham will become just the third Wallabies player to reach a ton of Tests, tonight at Telstra Stadium.
This extended farewell sits uncomfortably with Larkham. He's the kind of guy, he admits, who'll grab his jacket and be out the door of a party without any fuss.
Larkham has said goodbye to the ACT Brumbies; he will play in Scotland after this World Cup.
Larkham almost retired because of injuries after the 1999 World Cup, but the loss to England in the 2003 final was a signal to continue.
"I know George has spoken about retirement and a lot of people have talked about George retiring probably more so than me, but he always had that goal after the 2003 World Cup to play the next World Cup and so did I.
"That it was that result which spurred us on to play on to this next World Cup."
Larkham said the ultimate finale would be to win the World Cup final in October.
"So many guys previously who have retired in World Cups haven't had the fairytale and they've been fantastic players. Even in Super 14, guys like Brett Robinson who retired after 2000 and we lost the final that day. We were all so emotional for him because we thought we'd let him down.
"Fairytales don't just happen, you've got to work at them."
THE CANBERRA TIMES
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