Nineteen All Black caps, 11 international tries, a series win over the British Lions and a hat-trick at the Millennium Stadium have made Rico Gear a rugby phenomenon.

They have not suppressed his desire to prove himself.

The final piece in Mike Ruddock's jigsaw clocked in at Sixways yesterday and - fitness permitting, will go straight into the side for this weekend's European Challenge Cup nicety against GRAN Parma.

The scene could not have been more appropriate, nor more incongruous. Assembled, a few hundred yards from the M5, on a rain soaked December morning, were the very strangest of bedfellows.

Cecil Duckworth, the club's millionaire sugar daddy, watched as a team of Maori performers brought in from London especially for the occasion, greeted his newest recruit with the powhiri, a traditional welcome dance.

Around 50 club employers and several media representatives were also in attendance as Gear's compatriots, topless let it be noted, thrust out first their tongues then their groins to mark the event. A classic Bromyard introduction it was not.

Softly spoken Gear responded in his country's mother tongue. He thanked the performers, rubbed noses, acknowledged the relevant deities and dignitaries and even the dead. He did not miss a line.

Nor did he skip a beat when he and Sam Tuitupou led the troupe in the more recognisable haka. Ka mate, ka mate they bellowed, slapped thighs added the percussion and the earth shuddered.

Standing ten yards from one All Black issued a challenge, without the promise of physical violence to follow, was enough for these knees to wobble. The finale, 'whiti te ra?, hi?!', echoed around the empty stadium. Thankfully no throats were slit.

The relative safety of the International Suite beckoned. Duckworth radiated excitement while Mike Ruddock, the man charged with harnessing Gear's brilliance, urged a note of caution. "We can't just rely on Rico to win games for us," he warned.

Gear sat in between, bursting out of his blue and gold Worcester kit, he eased into his grilling. Why the Premiership, why Worcester, why not New Zealand, what about the World Cup?

His responses were not as clipped as many of his compatriots', by the end he was even smiling and spoke of the wreckage Tuitupou would wreak on the English top flight.

"I'm going to be running off Sammy a lot," he promised. After three years of the dullest piano moving how Worcester supporters have waited to hear that.

There does, however, remain the concern that like many players before him and like many of his compatriots English rugby is little more than the Premiership Pension Scheme.

Gear does not seem that type. He has a seven-month-old son he intends to get to know and wants help realise Duckworth's dream: Heineken Cup glory.

Home grown academy product Miles Benjamin, a mere 19, will be tutored by one of the deadliest wings the All Blacks have ever produced. Gear is here for the long haul.

"Will I play for the All Blacks again? At this stage I would have to say no," he said. I am comfortable with that.

"I came here thinking this is where I would like to see out my career and hopefully that'll be the case. I guess a World Cup would have been fantastic but that didn't come and life goes on. I can just use that motivation and use it for this competition in the next few weeks.

" I still have something to prove. The locals are going to expect a bit from me so I don't really want to disappoint the fans and management." Whether it's Maori or English, Rico Gear says all the right things.