2010 the centennial year of Māori rugby was also a very good year for Hosea Gear. The final of the three special games to mark one hundred years since the selection of the first official Māori All Blacks will be remembered for the storming try scored by Hosea which set the match alight and saw the Māori team come from behind to beat England 35 – 28 and complete a clean sweep of the three match series.

Hosea had a pretty good Super Rugby Series too, so it was a surprise to most rugby fans when he wasn’t picked in the All Blacks Tri-Nations team, instead he was sent off to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in the New Zealand Sevens squad – where he shone – and helped win Gold.

Having been excluded from the All Blacks earlier in the year it was again a surprise to some when he was selected for the end of year tour to Hong Kong to play Australia - and then on to Europe to play England, Scotland Ireland and Wales.

Hosea proved his fans faith in him wasn’t misplaced. He scored the first try in the opening match against England. A week later he scored the opening try against Scotland and went on to score another in the 49 – 3 win against the Scots.

And he helped seal the grand slam by again scoring the opening try against Wales and another later in the game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

By the end of the year he had racked up another two highlights.

Against stiff competition Hosea Gear was chosen senior Māori Sportsman of the Year and The Albie Pryor Māori Sportsperson of the Year, at the 20th Māori Sports Awards last year.

Hosea has come through the summer in good shape in fact a little lighter than his normal playing weight but he expects to make that up when he gets back into weight training. He’s back in the Hurricane’s training camp and has a full Super rugby, Tri-Nations and provincial season ahead of him.

And then of course there’s the Rugby World Cup tournament starting in September.