One Hala of a story for Willis

WILLIS HALAHOLO’S journey from Auckland gang member to Wales Grand Slam-chaser is a dizzying one to say the least.

The super-sub has turned heads in the Six Nations with his fast feet in impressive cameos against Scotland and England and could start his first Test against Italy next weekend.

Halaholo (below) is lapping it all up, knowing his life could so easily have ended up being very, very different.

At 30, he looks back at the lost soul he once was, sleeping in a garage at his in-laws’ house living off fast food and beer, and shudders at what might have been.

“In my last year of high school I ended up having a daughter,” he said.

“I was quite young and it messed with my head a bit and I ended up going down a different path with drinking and getting into a gang.

“It was an easy thing to fall into. Auckland is a big city and some people can handle the culture there but other people can’t.

“That happened for a couple of years. I didn’t know much about being a father until my daughter was about two or three and started to talk.

“Up until then I felt like a stranger to her. It was then I started to change things. I got there just in time.”

His daughter, Atu, has three sisters now and can speak Welsh.

Asked what advice he would give his younger self, he said: “Although he probably wouldn’t listen, I’d just tell him not to waste his talent. Not a lot of people get blessed with the talent that I have.

“I have had a lot of messages from boys who saw me at my worst. They can’t believe where I have got to.”