Good team-mate, wholehearted player
Blues rugby coach Tana Umaga and ex-All Blacks coach John Hart are among those mourning the loss of dual rugby international Dylan Mika.
Mika, 45, who suffered from diabetes, died in Auckland on Tuesday after a heart attack.
Umaga played alongside Mika a former Blues and Chiefs backrower - during the All Blacks’ 1999 Rugby World Cup campaign and became good friends with his fellow Samoan.
‘‘Dylan was a good man and a very good team-mate and friend,’’ Umaga said in a tribute on the Blues’ website.
‘‘He was always making sure you were OK and he would organise things to keep everyone’s spirits up. He was such a caring man.’’
Hart gave Mika his test debut for the All Blacks in 1999 and remembered him as ‘‘a fabulous guy - a lot bigger than the rugby field’’.
‘‘I was fortunate to have him play for the All Blacks in ‘99. He started five tests and came off the bench in a couple,’’ Hart told Stuff.
‘‘He was wholehearted in everything he did, a very physical player, who was totally committed. Dylan was a true All Black, on and off the field.’’
Hart said Mika had given tremendous service to rugby at different levels. ‘‘He was very active in his support of Samoan rugby and is much revered for what he did over there.’’
After retiring from rugby coaching, Hart lost touch with Mika for a few years but ‘‘reconnected with Dylan’’ in 2015 in sad circumstances when Hart, Mika and Michael Jones - all good friends of Jonah Lomu - were charged with organising a memorial service for the late All Black great at Eden Park.
Mika, who once started up a company selling Samoan bottled artesian water retained strong links to his ancestral homeland.
England-based former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick paid tribute to his former Blues team-mate, by retweeting a New Zealand Rugby condolence message.
Ross Cooper, his coach at the Chiefs, said in 1999 after Mika’s All Blacks debut that the likeable loose forward was ‘‘just a fabulous person’’ and ‘‘a natural leader’’ who did ‘‘things quietly and efficiently’’.
Mika had to cope with adversity throughout his career, battling diabetes and a mid-career back problem.
Born in Auckland to Samoan parents, Mika made his international rugby debut for Manu Samoa in 1994, playing two tests as a 22-year-old.
Mika then turned his attention to New Zealand, signing a NZRU contract in 1995 to play for the Blues in the new Super Rugby competition.
Mika bided his time, making the most of any game-time at the Blues where a log-jam of loose forward talent - including Brooke, Michael Jones and Andrew Blowers - limited his game-time. He played 23 games for the Blues over four seasons (1996 to 1998 followed by a final campaign in 2000).
He also had to overcome a chronic back injury, which was so bad that when he was finally cleared to return to training he could only walk for 20 minutes.
It was typical of his resolve and his determination to become an All Black - that he fought back to full fitness and resurrected his career at the Chiefs.
Mika returned to the Blues in 2000 after his Chiefs campaign, but left at the end of that year for Japan. He was still only 28 but knew his time in New Zealand rugby was done.