Halafihi just wants to play
There is no looking beyond Taranaki’s provincial rugby campaign for loose forward Toa Halafihi.
Although there was a chance his one-year deal at the Hurricanes could be extended in 2018, the 23-year-old said it was not playing on his mind as he prepared to face Wellington in the capital on Saturday.
‘‘There is a position there but I’m not really worried about that at the moment, I just want to get back into playing rugby at the moment,’’ he said. ’’I just want to be able to get the chance to use what I learnt at Super level and put it into action for Taranaki.’’
He admitted to being pretty sore after Taranaki’s opening 34-29 Mitre 10 Cup win over Waikato, mainly because he had not played in four weeks previous.
‘‘You notice the difference from just training to playing those minutes on the field.’’
Halafihi will strike a number of Hurricanes team-mates in the opposition at Westpac Stadium where he did not get to play as much as he hoped in his first season of Super Rugby.
Reflecting on that time, he said he soon learnt there was a sizeable leap up with the amount of work needed to be employed at that level.
‘‘I thought I worked hard here [Taranaki] but then you go to Super and you really find out what hard work is. But I had to adapt real fast to keep up with it and by the end it was quite good.’’
With only a couple of appearances for the Hurricanes, Halafihi was released to play a bit of club rugby. While he turned out for Poneke once, his heart was not in it so he asked the Hurricanes management if he could travel up to play more for Spotswood United, a request they obliged.
The door is certainly open for Halafihi to play a leading role in Taranaki’s campaign with the absence of a number of former first choice players.
Despite that, he was not taking anything for granted and was aware there was still some decent competition for places in the loose forward mix.
‘‘I really have to keep on my toes and lead more on the field, I think. My actions need to speak for themselves.’’
Although there was a fair bit of ring rust in some of Taranaki’s performance against Waikato, he believed the squad was improving by the day.
‘‘We are a new team with a lot of new faces, so we are still finding those combinations. But we will go down to Wellington with heaps of confidence.’’