By Greg Stutchbury
WELLINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - TJ Perenara's fledgling test career looked like it might be over almost before it got off the ground after a rough ride behind an experimental pack in his second match in the All Blacks number nine shirt last November.
Coach Steve Hansen had decided that with the World Cup looming in less than 12 months, he wanted to see how his bench and fringe players would handle the pressure without the core of experienced heads around them.
The scrumhalf duly had a torrid time in Edinburgh as the All Blacks forwards failed to provide him with clean ball, even though the world champions typically managed to sneak away with a 24-16 victory over Scotland.
Media reports of the match, while acknowledging it was not an easy day for the scrumhalf, were unequivocal that incumbent scrumhalf Aaron Smith was not under any pressure from Perenara as the World Cup approached.
That turned into concern that Hansen could be struggling for a suitable replacement should Smith get injured when Tawera Kerr-Barlow was ruled out for nine months with a knee problem that put his World Cup selection in doubt.
Perenara's Super Rugby form with the Wellington Hurricanes this season, however, wiped away such worries.
His pass still may be not quite as quick or wide as Smith's, but it is now more consistent and his delivery allowed flyhalf Beauden Barrett time to unleash a potent backline.
The 23-year-old's support play was also superb, allowing him to score 11 tries, the second most behind Otago Highlanders winger Waisake Naholo.
Perenara feels his game had gone up a level this year, even if he admits it needed to if he wanted to stay in the frame for All Blacks selection.
"I feel like I want to get better each game, so I'd be disappointed if I wasn't playing better than I was last year or the year before," he told Reuters.
"In this sport if you stay the same then you get passed because everyone else gets better.
"You have to improve each week."
Perenara had been tipped for high honours from an early age.
He did not play for Mana College's first XV in his final year at high school, deciding instead to step into senior club rugby with Wellington's Northern United as an 18-year-old, making his provincial debut the same year.
He was the starting scrumhalf in the 'Baby Blacks' team that won the 2011 under-20 World Cup and made an immediate impression in his debut Super Rugby season in 2012.
Such was his irrepressible form, many pundits had pencilled him into Hansen's first All Blacks squad of 2012 but the coach decided to give him more time to develop, remarking that his time would come in the near future.
Cruelly, Perenara broke his leg playing for the Hurricanes that June and did not play again until 2013, when he finally made the All Blacks squad but did not get any game time.
He surpassed Kerr-Barlow as the number two scrumhalf last year and appeared in 11 tests, although the match against Scotland was only his second start.
Perenara acknowledged he probably played better with more games and minutes under his belt but would never use the lack of time in the black number nine shirt as an excuse for a poor performance.
"I always back myself to play well, it doesn't matter how many minutes I get, so I can't say that I'm not getting minutes so that's why I played bad," he said.
"You have to be prepared to go regardless of when it is in a season." (Editing by Nick Mulvenney)