Old Dog' Billy Guyton keen to teach youngsters new tricks

Billy Guyton can see the amusing side of his newly-acquired 'old man' tag.

It's not that the 27-year-old Tasman Makos halfback feels old necessarily, it's just that the rest of the Tasman backline is so young.

Apart from established 25-year-old winger James Lowe, the bulk of the Makos' backs are in their early 20s. Even new All Black David Havili, who's just completed a stellar Super Rugby season with the Crusaders, is still only 22.

"We laughed about that last week. We used to split into over-25s and now we can't because I'm the only one," Guyton quipped.

But Guyton acknowledges that with increasing years comes an added sense of responsibility and in that respect, he's readily embracing his leadership role within the group.

"It's cool being able to help guide the young guys and just try to set good examples all week to help them with their preparation if it helps them ... and just give them good tips about how to be a little bit more ready for a game in the weekend."

The Blues' early Super Rugby exit had given the now 44-game Mako time to get his body into shape for the Mitre 10 Cup campaign.

"I'm starting to feel pretty good now, the body's feeling good, still a few bumps and bruises that you generally get from rugby.

"I was able to lose a little bit of extra body fat and get into the best shape I could be for the Mitre 10, so it's been good."

Ironically though, he missed the opening Canterbury game through a late injury and started off the bench against Manawatu. But he wore the No 9 jersey against former Chiefs and All Blacks halfback Tawera Kerr-Barlow in Sunday's win over Waikato.

"I think we were probably quite lucky to get away with that one in the end. A couple of us on the sideline were getting a bit nervous and yelling `get it out, get it out'." 

Guyton's now into his fifth season with the Makos and brought all of his abrasive, combative presence to Sunday's contest and even celebrated his return to the starting lineup by scoring the team's opening try.

"Yeah, I was lucky enough [flanker] Ethan Blackadder threw me over the line. He's a bloody good man to have behind you." 

He isn't shying away from the genuine competitive threat posed by fellow halfback Finlay Christie. 

"He's always keeping me honest. He's got a few tricks up his sleeve, he's a bloody talented young kid and the more he learns, the harder it's going to be for me to stay on the field.

"That's what you need in a good team, you need good competition to help push everyone. There's a lot of competition in the forwards and even in the backs, there's a few faces that people haven't seen that are starting to join in and are exciting prospects."

He said that everyone had remained positive despite their two opening losses.

"There are a few young guys and they're still adjusting to the next level and it takes that top two inches to really be disciplined to be able to hold on to the ball and maybe a little bit of panic that we haven't started the way we wanted to and those little things sometimes creep in.

"We've got to really trust what the coaches do and believe in what they've got because when we looked at the Canterbury game, we were doing some things really well, it was just that little two percent that wasn't quite there that we weren't nailing.

"And that's the difference really rugby in New Zealand these days. You only have to be a little bit off and bang, you can be behind by so much. That's the skill levels that New Zealand's got these days and that showed [against Waikato], that two percent we had up on them in the first half sort of slipped and they got it in the second half and just about came back and won."

There were still plenty of positive signs.

"The backs were going through holes and the forwards were running off them and I think that's the old Tassie from the past. But this is a new team so we've got to believe in ourselves ... we've got the right people there.

"There's some real talent there and there's some old heads too to mix in with that talent which is what you need. It's going to be an exciting next few weeks."