Classic All Blacks honour Collins and family

Classic All Blacks honour Collins and family

A team of former All Blacks has paid tribute to the late Jerry Collins and his wife who died in a car accident in France, in June.

The classic All Blacks, and coach Robbie Deans, took on Toulon, where Collins used to play.

It's been a tough four months for overseas based former All Blacks closest to Collins. In Toulon they found comfort in each other's company, watched over on a big screen by the man himself.

Some struggled to contain emotion as the crowd fell silent in memory of Collins and his wife Alana Madill who died in a car accident near Narbonne. Only their 10-month-old daughter, Ayla, survived.

Former All Black Ali Williams was part of the classic All Blacks team; he is still reeling for Ayla's sake.

"That's the hard bit, when you think of the future for Ayla, but like everything there are things that come into your life and you deal with them. She'll be fine and we will support that. "

The support for Ayla and sadness over the parents she lost was channelled through a spine-tingling haka.

Deans says the Kiwi comradery was something he hadn't felt for a while.

"It was great, fantastic. When they practiced the haka yesterday, I was really quite emotional. It's been a long time, so it's great to be surrounded by Kiwis again."

Captained by Chris Masoe, a legendary All Black side relished the pride of pulling on the black jersey once again.

Carlos Spencer admitted he felt a certain pride in being back in black.

"To have the opportunity to not only do the haka again, but to put on the black jersey and for me to lead it after a number of years is pretty emotional. Once again an honour and privilege, to get that opportunity for myself is tremendous."

Justin Marshall was in the same boat as Spencer – proud to do the haka again, but careful of not hurting himself before kick-off

"We went for old school as well with the jump at the finish. That's when you're old when you're going for the jump. You can pull a hamstring before the games even started. That's a dead giveaway of your age. I made sure I didn't jump too explosively so I could make kick-off."

The classic All Blacks did get through injury free but a couple of days training was no match for the prepared team of Toulon who won 68-21.

It's the stuff after the memorial match that shows what the memorial game was really all about though.

People came together to honour and pay tribute to a family who deserved none of what they have been served.

Ayla is said to be making steady progress with her medical treatment and proceeds from the memorial match in Toulon will go towards making her future as comfortable as it can possibly be.

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