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Donald happy to learn from the world`s best

Monday 08th September 2008

Number two: Donald is happy to play second fiddle to Carter

Despite having sat on the bench for most of this international season All Black Stephen Donald is happy to play second-fiddle to Dan Carter.

Donald is only too happy to be in a position to learn from Carter, and is expected to be among the replacements again this weekend for his side's Tri-Nations decider against Australia.

Having had a fine season with the Chiefs, coupled with Nick Evans' departure from New Zealand, enabled Donald to make his All Blacks debut earlier this season. But since then he has had to make do with limited game time.

However Donald is not concerned at his lack of game time, rather is only too happy to be learning and developing as a player.

"There are two ways of looking at it," Donald told Yahoo!Xtra.

"You could be frustrated, but I would rather be number two than number three.

"I am wrapped to be here and I guess as long as my game is still improving at the rate it is, then I think it is a positive.

"And there is nobody better to learn off and watch.

"It is not something you can get down about.

"I knew the deal, Dan is obviously the world's best so it is up to me to improve my game as much as I can."

In what is his first season of international rugby Donald has admitted it has been a steep learning curve, both on and off the field.

"I think I have improved in my kicking game, and the variation to that," he said.

"I have worked with Smithy (Wayne Smith) and Mick Byrne quite a lot on the kicking.

"And I guess you work on your general professionalism. That is something I have taken on board since I turned up in this environment.

"And you also recognise more what the defences are doing and so on. There are massive amounts of areas you could improve on."

The 101-14 victory over Samoa last week saw Donald get a forty minute run-out in the second half, and he enjoyed having time to settle into a game - as well as grabbing a try.

"Yeah it was awesome," Donald said.

"It was a wee bit different, coming on for more than five or ten minutes.

"I was blowing a bit. But it was great to get out there and have a decent crack at it."