IRELAND v NEW ZEALAND: Gerry Thornleytalks to All Black Ma'a Nonu who is happy to be finally starting game after game
IF MA'A NONU had been unsure of himself in an All Black environment up until this year, he had every right to be. Despite making his debut against England in Wellington in June 2003, by the time he was picked five years later to play against Ireland in his home town city last summer, he had won only 18 caps.
He had always drawn unflattering and unfair comparisons with his boyhood idol Tana Umaga, and was shunted around between wing, outside and inside centre and, most commonly of all, impact replacement. Indeed, a dozen of those first 18 caps had been as a replacement and, incredibly, despite only being on the losing side once, he had never started two successive games for the All Blacks in that time.
But all that changed utterly this year, and his match-winning try in the Cake Tin - more a swimming pool really - last June against Ireland constituted the first of an unbroken run in all 12 All Blacks Tests this year, in which he has started all bar the win over Australia in Hong Kong last Saturday week. Now he feels, at last, more a part of it.
"It's probably the first year I've probably played two or three more games than at the start of my career and it's gone well. If you're given the opportunity you've just got to take it. I mean, it's special playing for the All Blacks and it's been a lot of pleasure."
It's hard to credit that at the time they played Ireland, and even more so after losing two of their first three matches, the heat was on. "From the players' point of view, it's been a hard year, but all the players have been tough and done their stuff, and it's been pretty good to be a part of. Test rugby is just getting tougher and tougher.
"But, if you look at a guy like Mils (Muliaina, with whom he is seemingly joined at the hip off the pitch), DC (Dan Carter), Richie (McCaw) and Rodney (So'oialo), they're top players for a long time," he adds unprompted, demonstrating a reluctance to pat himself on the back just yet. "So you've got to keep playing well and keep up that form."
"I think in previous years I was always behind. Tana was one, and Aaron Mauger and that. I did get opportunities on the end-of-year tours in '05 and '06, but I didn't really push on after that. I think this year it's been a long time coming and just starting games after games is not too bad. It's pretty good actually."
He was also part of the New Zealand team that beat Ireland in Hamilton in June '06 and won 45-7 in Lansdowne Road in November '05, when denied a brilliant, solo try by the TMO. "I still tell the boys I scored it, but maybe I did knock it on."
"I like playing the Irish," smiles the dreadlocked 26-year-old of Samoan and amongst others, would you credit it, Irish extraction. His grandmother on his father's side was a Dunne and of his many tattoos, the one embracing his right arm displays his many bloodlines. "My dad was always telling me about her when I was growing up, so there is a little bit of Irish there."
His brother, Palepoi, is currently living in Ireland, where he works as a stockbroker and plays rugby, and visited Ma'a in Scotland last week. He has another rugby playing brother, Samson (the mind boggles); all of them having started at Oriental Rongotai in Wellington, where their father Kava played as a prop. Ma'a was the natural, as Palepoi accepts, though Ma'a rubbishes his older brother's claim that he scored 10 tries in his first game as a barefoot five-year-old.
As such an explosive ball carrier, he would hardly be unique if, in his formative years, Nonu's strength and speed were utilised to the full without always developing his game. At last though, an exceptionally dynamic ball-runner is reaching his vast potential. Once described as "the hardest guy to tackle in world rugby" by former All Blacks team-mate Aaron Mauger, Nonu has improved his passing and kicking skills to augment his combination of speed, power and balance. Now too, Nonu concedes, he feels more a part of it.
"A few years back it was always my trait just to run really. I always relied on taking up the ball. I think when you play as a midfielder in professional rugby, you see a lot of midfielders play and they always progress on, and as you keep getting older you keep picking up more skills and that. If you look at the top ones like (Stirling) Mortlock and (Brian) O'Driscoll, there's a lot of things in their game that they're good at. I want to try and pick that up too and add that to my game. Instead of just having two arrows in my bow, maybe more."
As the selection policy of this All Blacks think-tank demonstrates, these tourists are mindful of the threat posed by Ireland, who have come within two scores of New Zealand in their last three Tests in the land of the long white cloud. No other Northern Hemisphere country has consistently come that close on treks to New Zealand in that time, least of all the Lions, and it is therefore expected Graham Henry and co will revert to a nominal first-choice team more in line with the side that beat Australia in Hong Kong when unveiling their hand today.
Thus, although Nonu or, say, Ali Williams, might be rested, it could read something like: Muliaina; Sivivatu, Smith, Nonu, Rokocoko; Carter, Cowan; Woodcock, Mealamu, Tialata, Thorn, Williams or Boruc, Kaino, McCaw and So'oialo.
"They've always been a threat, they've always been a tough side," Nonu says respectfully of their hosts. "They came close to winning, they were leading in '06 in Hamilton and we just came back to win in the last five minutes and we scraped through. Ireland are a tough side and it will be really tough for us this week. Their threats are all over the park. They've got a good back three and they like to counter-attack and they've got strong forwards."
So, despite it being their stated ambition, no talk from Nonu of a Grand Slam tour just yet. "One step at a time." He knows that better than most.
