RedVDave
First Grade
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WE CAN'T tell you how Jason Nightingale's teammates describe his strength, because it's politically incorrect.
Let's just say it's abnormal. He's punching above his weight.
"Put it this way," says Wendell Sailor, who retired at the end of last season to make way for Nightingale. "Lote Tuqiri isn't going to get his own way when he comes up against him on Saturday night.
"He is very strong. Rubber limbs. And it is going to take a lot of work from Lote to pull him down when he has the ball. He'll have to respect him."
Respect is something that Nightingale has earned spades of this season.
He had big shorts to fill when he replaced Sailor on the right wing. Despite his slender appearance, he has filled them.
Nightingale earned it last year, too, as he warmed the bench, patiently waiting for his chance, knowing he would've walked into a starting side elsewhere but never wanting to play anywhere else. He and Mark Gasnier come from the same junior club of Renown United.
"I knew I had to bide my time a little bit while the big man was still at the club," Nightingale says calmly of Sailor.
As he sits here, high in the stands of WIN Stadium, it is hard to conjure images of his Superman-like strength.
Then again, the evidence is on the green turf and the single-minded way he carries the ball.
Like the times when he has two or three defenders clinging to him and he shrugs them off and pops an unexpected pass.
"Or like against Manly in the first week of the semis," recalls Sailor.
"When he got through three or four blokes to get out of the in-goal. He's very strong."
Tell Nightingale about the term his teammates use to describe his strength, and he replies: "What is it? Being small and still being strong?
"I think it's probably because I'm unorthodox.
"I'm relatively strong in the gym, but not overly. It's something that's always been there with me naturally. I am probably more powerful than I am strong. It comes from genes."
Those genes come off the wind and rain and snow-battered west coast of New Zealand's South Island. "That's Dad's side," he says of father Kev.
"He's pretty strong. That's a rough area. Big farmer Cantabrians who are west-coast settlers. I never grew up on a farm, but it's in the blood."
Dragons performance director Jeremy Hickmans explains it this way: "He's one of those players who looks ugly when he does things but is very effective on the field. Initially it surprised me how strong he is.
"When he's training you think, 'You've got a bit of work to do'. He's certainly one of those guys who you stick on a bench press and he isn't fantastic.
"You look at his running technique. It's ugly but effective. His wrestling technique is the same, but he's strong at it.
"It's the way he uses that strength is the thing."
Of course, Nightingale will need all of that politically incorrect strength against Tuqiri in tomorrow night's preliminary final at ANZ Stadium.
"Every time we speak to a fan they are asking the question," he says of the mounting expectation. "There are people who have been watching us for 30 years who have passed that baggage on to us."
Baggage? Despite appearances, Nightingale is apparently strong enough to carry it.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ls-pocket-rocket/story-e6frexnr-1225928583827
Let's just say it's abnormal. He's punching above his weight.
"Put it this way," says Wendell Sailor, who retired at the end of last season to make way for Nightingale. "Lote Tuqiri isn't going to get his own way when he comes up against him on Saturday night.
"He is very strong. Rubber limbs. And it is going to take a lot of work from Lote to pull him down when he has the ball. He'll have to respect him."
Respect is something that Nightingale has earned spades of this season.
He had big shorts to fill when he replaced Sailor on the right wing. Despite his slender appearance, he has filled them.
Nightingale earned it last year, too, as he warmed the bench, patiently waiting for his chance, knowing he would've walked into a starting side elsewhere but never wanting to play anywhere else. He and Mark Gasnier come from the same junior club of Renown United.
"I knew I had to bide my time a little bit while the big man was still at the club," Nightingale says calmly of Sailor.
As he sits here, high in the stands of WIN Stadium, it is hard to conjure images of his Superman-like strength.
Then again, the evidence is on the green turf and the single-minded way he carries the ball.
Like the times when he has two or three defenders clinging to him and he shrugs them off and pops an unexpected pass.
"Or like against Manly in the first week of the semis," recalls Sailor.
"When he got through three or four blokes to get out of the in-goal. He's very strong."
Tell Nightingale about the term his teammates use to describe his strength, and he replies: "What is it? Being small and still being strong?
"I think it's probably because I'm unorthodox.
"I'm relatively strong in the gym, but not overly. It's something that's always been there with me naturally. I am probably more powerful than I am strong. It comes from genes."
Those genes come off the wind and rain and snow-battered west coast of New Zealand's South Island. "That's Dad's side," he says of father Kev.
"He's pretty strong. That's a rough area. Big farmer Cantabrians who are west-coast settlers. I never grew up on a farm, but it's in the blood."
Dragons performance director Jeremy Hickmans explains it this way: "He's one of those players who looks ugly when he does things but is very effective on the field. Initially it surprised me how strong he is.
"When he's training you think, 'You've got a bit of work to do'. He's certainly one of those guys who you stick on a bench press and he isn't fantastic.
"You look at his running technique. It's ugly but effective. His wrestling technique is the same, but he's strong at it.
"It's the way he uses that strength is the thing."
Of course, Nightingale will need all of that politically incorrect strength against Tuqiri in tomorrow night's preliminary final at ANZ Stadium.
"Every time we speak to a fan they are asking the question," he says of the mounting expectation. "There are people who have been watching us for 30 years who have passed that baggage on to us."
Baggage? Despite appearances, Nightingale is apparently strong enough to carry it.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ls-pocket-rocket/story-e6frexnr-1225928583827
