The new All Black who never gave up
It’s a slight not many props recover from.
Once you’re labelled a soft touch at scrum time, that tends to be the end of your international aspirations.
Teams might give you a game at provincial or Super Rugby level, particularly if you’re good around the park and a decent bloke in the dressing room. But you’re never afforded the kind of respect that’s reserved for the noted scrummagers.
At 27, it didn’t look like former New Zealand under-20s, Auckland, Taranaki, Blues and Waratahs tighthead prop Angus Ta’avao would ever get the chance to make a second impression. Nice guy, good athlete, but his card had been marked. Heck, he’d even been to Australia and not been able to crack it.
A year on, Ta’avao is an All Black and living proof not to give up on your dreams or let the judgments of others define you.
‘‘That literally sums it all up. I’ve had labels put on me pretty much that whole career. I think it’s just that underlying belief in myself and having a really strong support system in my family and my partner and my friends,’’ Ta’avao said after it was announced he would join the All Blacks squad for their Rugby Championship clash with Argentina next Saturday.
‘‘It would be pretty easy at this age to give up that hope or try and look for something else. But the beauty of my position is you only get better with age. As a winger, or something, it’s sort of the other way around and you’ve got the speed and whatever as a young buck and as you get older you have to change your game.
‘‘But with scrummaging, and as a prop, they say like a fine wine you develop over time. I feel like I’m playing the best rugby I’ve played in my whole life and consistently too, which is really pleasing.’’
It would be easy to think that, having been called into the All Blacks’ squad to replace the injured Joe Moody, Ta’avao won’t play. But then it didn’t look like he’d play Super Rugby this year, either.
Instead, after coming in as an injury replacement for the Chiefs as well, the 28-year-old made 17 impressive appearances, pushing out big minutes along the way. Always terrific in general play, Ta’avao scrummaged well too, just as he had for Taranaki in the 2017 Mitre 10 Cup.
The common denominator at Taranaki and the Chiefs was coach Colin Cooper.
‘‘I owe a lot to Colin Cooper and I’ve let him know as much as I can. He’s thrown me a couple of lifelines over the last couple of years and without him I don’t think I’d be in this situation I’m in at the moment,’’ said Ta’avao.