NACEWA: SEXTON WILL GO INTO 40s
ISA NACEWA knows how quickly things can change right now.
The former Leinster star is back living in his native Auckland these days and was looking forward to the blockbuster finale of Super Aotearoa on Sunday.
The Crusaders had the title wrapped up but that didn’t stop 46,000 Blues supporters snapping up tickets for the Eden Park clash.
New Zealand had gone 102 days without a case of Covid-19 until last Wednesday when the alarm was raised in Auckland. The city is now on lockdown again and will remain that way for the rest of this month.
Nacewa will be getting up at the crack of dawn to tune into Leinster v Munster on Saturday. He knows all about the tribal element of those meetings and scoffs at the notion that it has lost its edge in recent times. ‘I never understood all the commentary around the rivalry is gone,’ he said.look at who is being ‘It got worse and worse every single year, it got fiercer and fiercer every single year that I was there. And a player doesn’t rested or what schedule he is on or why he’s not involved in this Munster week, blah blah blah, they don’t think like that.
‘It’s the biggest week of the year. You’d have to be on point, there is a different buzz about it, and it just got fiercer and fiercer. ‘That’s the beauty about longevity and the tribal warfare of a Leinster-Munster match.
‘If professionalism got in the way and started dampening that, then it’s time to start watching a different sport. But that never left in my years there. It just got bigger and bigger every single week no matter what was being said about it, and that is the same today.’
There are many who feel that Nacewa is a top-class coach in waiting, but apart from a shortlived stint in a mental skills role with the Auckland Blues a few years ago, he has not donned the tracksuit since.
A sharp, intelligent operator during his playing days, he looks made for a role on a backroom team somewhere in the near future.
After all, he learned from some of the best in the game in Michael Cheika, Joe Schmidt and Stuart Lancaster.
The latter has been linked with some big jobs recently, including a possible gig with the Lions next year which comes as no surprise to Nacewa.
‘Stuart had an absolutely phenomenal influence on me and still is, still challenges me today.
‘I still stay in regular contact with him, he’s someone that definitely has so much expertise away from rugby also, in life and leadership, and they’re the type of qualities that I can still hear his voice in my head challenging me, and he still challenges me to this day, which is awesome.
‘So he had a huge influence on me at the right time in my career also, he taught me more about leadership in two years under him than probably more than 10 years worth of leadership put together.
‘He challenged me in so many different ways and challenged the Leinster organisation, the staff and the players, from an angle that we haven’t been challenged from before and that’s why I loved learning from Stuart and still continue learning from him now.’
The extended break will have done wonders for players such as Johnny Sexton, who turned 35 during the lockdown, and has signalled his intent to push on for many seasons to come. Nacewa, of course, benefited from two years out of the game before coming out of retirement for another trophy-laden stint with Leinster.
‘I think it will have done wonders for guys in the latter stages of their career,’ he added.
‘Guys get sabbaticals written into their contracts, some of the big dogs, to manage the body over a four-year World Cup period.
‘You can imagine what 175 days away from the game, one, you’d be able to get over any niggles that you had, there’d still be enough time there to get gains physically and mentally, even with all the distractions that were going on, it was the perfect time to refresh.
‘I can see Johnny playing until he is 42 if he wanted, that’s the seriousness of how long a break this will have done. I’ve spoken to players all over the world during this time. A lot of them have said to me, “I can get another year out of this”, and that’s the way they’ve been thinking.
‘Someone like John Afoa (at Bristol) who has been putting his head in a scrum for 17 years is feeling great, and knows he can go for another year with ease, they just have to be conscious about hitting the ground running and managing that as soon as rugby kicks off again.
‘We’re lucky enough we’re going to see that this week but for the guys that are in the latter part of their career, the break will have done them wonders.’
It certainly did Nacewa no harm.
“Lancaster taught me leadership”