Happy to be here for the long haul

RUGBY ISA NACEWA INTERVIEW: Gerry Thornleytalks to the experienced, versatile New Zealander who, together with his young family, is enjoying life in in Dublin and looking forward to helping Leinster to claim further honours

FOR THE most part we’ve no idea what is going on in a player’s life, and often make judgements as pundits or supporters which never take that into account. Yet a happy and contented person makes for a better player, and you can tell from Isa Nacewa’s performances this season that he’s in a good place.

Nacewa himself, whether in part because of the arrival of his old Auckland Blues mentor Joe Schmidt, has been buzzing since the start of the season and has been one of the few Leinster players to hit the ground running. “Yeah, completely buzzing; just not at ten,” he jokes.

His and Simone’s 10-month-old identical twin girls, Mia and Ellie, arrived at 32 weeks, and all are doing well, not least thanks to visits from New Zealand of both his and Simone’s respective mothers, as well as a lengthy stay in Auckland last summer.

“They were born at 32 weeks. They were light but breathing by themselves and perfectly fine. It was just a matter of them putting on weight.

“It was a huge learning curve for us, and even more so Simone being by herself when I had away games. That was a really big one. Simone has turned into supermum. She does the cleaning, dinner cooked each night and she’s still looking after two twins by herself.”

Now they have settled into family life in Dublin and Nacewa, in the first of a three-year deal, appears as if he could hardly be happier with his lot. “Now I can focus on the girls and rugby, and I don’t have to worry about outside factors.”

Coming from Auckland, Dublin is similarly sized, and, having just moved into a bigger home in Dublin, understandably he has little desire to uproot his young family for quite some time. “All our Irish friends have been so easy to get along with; we’ve got good friends so life is just really good.”

Just one bum note. Leinster’s results so far. “I think what’s most frustrating is that we have been completely in the game, either right in it or leading, and then we’ve had say a 15-minute spell in each game, an afternoon snooze as some have called it. And that’s just down to concentration.”

It’s in these spells especially when their defence becomes passive and porous.

“We don’t have a defence coach in place at the moment but that isn’t an excuse. We’ve got foundations in place that we’re just not living up to. Even when we’re getting beaten around the ruck, that’s where we’re meant to be the most solid. That’s our heart defence and when we’re getting beaten in there or soaking tackles or going back and missing them, that’s a huge area we have to look on.”

Since recovering from the broken hand he suffered three games into his Leinster career two seasons ago, Nacewa has only been rested in five of Leinster’s last 48 competitive games. What’s more, he has started in each of those 43 appearances, be it at outhalf, left or right wing, fullback or once at inside centre, and last Saturday in Edinburgh was only the sixth time in those games that he was replaced. Although he is on standby to start at outhalf once more today, his form makes it somewhat surprising that he could be on the bench for the first time since December ’08.

A loser against Munster in Thomond Park two seasons ago, he has been on the winning side in the last four collisions. His stand-out memories of course include the Croke Park Heineken Cup semi-final two seasons ago when Nacewa played superbly at fullback and was a key creative influence in two of Leinster’s tries.

He has completely bought into the whole Leinster-Munster zeitgeist.

“I’m just completely entrenched in it now. It’s the game to look forward to, no matter what. I think one of the better ones was the win we had down there last year, just like they probably felt when they did the double over us the year before. It’s just a brutal game in which sometimes tactics and skill go out of it, because it just comes down to just the hardened, full-on gruel of a match, and whoever stands up physically usually comes out on top.”

And you’d hope form goes out the window? “Yep,” laughs Nacewa, “and that Doug Howlett stops running in tries,” he adds, of his old Auckland Blues mate. He talks of each individual looking after their own performance and of establishing a different attitude for this game to then taking it into the European matches.

“It’s time to stand up and cut all the talking out and start turning it into action. Everyone’s attitude has already changed in training this week compared to previous weeks. That adds to the pressure but it’s good pressure that we need.”

It was in an interview in these pages almost a year ago that Nacewa first talked up Joe Schmidt as the coach who taught him most of what he knows about a backline in the latter’s three years as assistant/backs coach at the Auckland Blues. Nacewa knows Leinster’s new head coach better than anyone.

In some respects Schmidt has changed, in others not. “He still strives for perfection, I remember that since I first had him. He really tries to get the best out of every individual but he does it in very simple ways. He likes to play an open game, but knows that we can’t play an open game unless our passing is crisp and he tries to make us the best passing team in the league because he knows it’s such an important thing and a simple thing. It doesn’t involve any tactics to be able to pass well.”

To say Schmidt is different from, and more cerebral than, Michael Cheika would be an understatement. “Sort of polar opposites,” smiles Nacewa knowingly. “Checks got the best out of everyone by sort of motivating them whereas Joe’s mind doesn’t stop thinking rugby, so he’s got an answer to everything and it’s usually the right answer. We often say things off the top of our heads but then he’ll counter that with a different angle.”

Nacewa has also noticed how the three years in Clermont have made Schmidt more au fait with a professional environment. “When Joe first came to the Blues they had the likes of Carlos (Spencer) who thought they ran the team. So I think the biggest change is that he knows how to coach professional players after being with Clermont so long.”

There’s a theory out there, however, that Leinster need a tough taskmaster ala Cheika, rather than a more cerebral Schmidt, to give them the occasional rocket up the derriere etc. That Joe is too nice.

“Definitely not the case,” says Nacewa with another knowing smile. “I think a lot of people thought that was going to be the case when he came in but I’d say that’s one of the biggest differences I’ve seen. He’s definitely grown a hard-nosed attitude and he’ll pinpoint guys in meetings if you’ve slackened off. You can’t hide on the field from the way he looks at the game. He’s said there’s absolutely no skill in working hard to get into a line on defence. That’s just hard work and he’ll pinpoint you and pull you out at a meeting and say you’re not working hard enough.”

Fairly laid-back himself, Nacewa is phlegmatic about having to slot back in at outhalf twice and assume the goalkicking this season, two things he’d done just once since April ’09. But it was on the left-wing in the Cardiff home game that he scored 19 points and generated a buzz amongst the home faithful. The chanting of his name is virtually a regular occurrence at home games.

“I always try and block it (the crowd) out but it’s a bit hard at the RDS. It’s a great ground to play in with the crowd being so close. It’s an awesome buzz and you just live off it.”

Being a crowd favourite is also a reflection of the way he plays. Part of the galacticos at the Auckland Blues, his inclination is to play positively, to try things. Perhaps too it’s because his commitment to Leinster is now total.

In November last year the current Sale coach Mick Brewer, then with Fiji, publicly suggested that Nacewa would reconsider playing for the country of his father, having played for them for one minute in the 2003 World Cup – thereby ruining his ambition of playing for the All Blacks. The way Nacewa tells it, there was no truth to the suggestion at all. Nor will there be.

“They’re trying to name a November/World Cup squad but I haven’t spoken to anyone and I’m not putting myself up for Fiji. I told Leinster when I signed my deal that I was 100 per cent committed to them and I would be here during World Cup.”

As there will presumably be half a dozen or so matches in the Magners League during that September/October window next year, Nacewa cannot go back on his word to Leinster. He’s here for the long haul now and couldn’t be happier about it.

Isa Nacewa

DOB: 22nd July 1982

Birthplace: Auckland

Height: 1.80m (5' 11")

Weight: 88kg (13st 12lb)

Position: Anywhere outside scrumhalf.

School: Auckland Grammar School

Professional playing career: Auckland 54 games (212 points); Auckland Blues 44 games (208 points); Leinster 47 games, 107 points.

Test career: Fiji (1 cap).

Honours: 3 NPC titles with Auckland, one Heineken Cup with Leinster.