‘Playing in snow and mud was a real eye-opener’

Steven Luatua had fun in the Championship but is excited by Bristol’s rebirth, he tells Ben Coles ‘When I first walked in here, I was stoked to be involved’

One game sticks out above the rest when Steven Luatua looks back on his first season in English rugby; a 24-3 win over Rotherham played out in a blizzard. “You could not really see 10 metres in front of you,” he admits with a big smile on his face.

Capped 15 times by the All Blacks, the 27-year-old signed on with Bristol as part of the club’s push to establish themselves as a force in the Gallagher Premiership. Relegation put those plans on hold until Friday night this week, when Bristol Bears open up the new Premiership season with a derby at home to Bath. With respect to the Championship, these are the games that Luatua signed up to be a part of.

“Playing in the Championship was definitely humbling. Some of the teams and the grounds you come up against definitely reminded me of real traditional grass-roots rugby back home in New Zealand,” he says.

“It grounded me, in the sense that it reminded me why I played rugby in the first place: to go out and enjoy yourself throwing the ball around with a couple of mates, although obviously we have a structure in place that Pat [Lam] likes to play with.

“But it was real fun last year, and definitely brutal at times. The snow was a fresh experience for a lot of our lads. Playing down in Cornwall early in the season, bad weather, muddy grounds, was also definitely an eye-opener. But it made me appreciate the game that much more. It’s very different to Ashton Gate, but when I first walked in here, I was stoked to be involved.”

Luatua has a point. Bristol’s home will make for an imposing ground, providing the supporters turn up, and the early signs are positive with over 21,000 tickets sold for Friday’s opener.

Some players might have looked for a way out of their contract once they knew the destinations that awaited them in England included Jersey and Penzance. Luatua instead took on the Bristol captaincy for some matches, his enthusiasm unwavering.

“There were murmurs back home about Bristol going down but I had no doubts in my mind that I was coming. I had signed on the dotted line and then my commitment was here, whether in the Premiership or Championship,” he says.

“I have had a lot of fun here. My family have enjoyed the city of Bristol itself and then having Europe on your doorstep, you’re able to go on trips and experience things that you would not get the chance to enjoy back in New Zealand.”

Playing abroad, of course, means a detachment from the All Blacks. Luatua burst onto the Super Rugby scene with the Blues in Auckland in 2012, then coached by his current boss Lam, and his All Blacks debut swiftly followed.

The level of competition in New Zealand, however, at blindside and No8, his respective positions, is frankly insane, and Luatua faded out of contention and missed out on selection for the 2015 World Cup. But a superb performance last year for the Barbarians against New Zealand prompted Steve Hansen to admit that “everyone got a taste of why we didn’t want him to go”.

“For myself, the timing was right [to move],” says Luatua. “I’d love to play for my country, week in and week out, but my focus is here at Bristol.

“When I went home for my break, I popped in to use the facilities at the Blues, which they have been great about. The results have not been there, but the morale is still there. They’re a tight