My body tells me to quit, but I just can’t!
THE FORMER TONGA, BEDFORD, NORTHAMPTON, RACING 92, OYONNAX, BRISTOL AND AMPTHILL PROP AND CURRENT PLAYER-COACH AT CHINNOR RFC
IT took a while for myself to let go of Northampton’s Heineken Cup final defeat to Leinster in 2011. The way they came back from 16 points down to beat us was heartbreaking and I continued to dwell on it and think about the ‘what ifs’. It was only really when Tonga defied the odds to beat France at the World Cup later that year that I properly put it to bed and started to look forward not back.
The majority of my 18 caps for Tonga came at three World Cups (2007 to 2015), that was just because of the way World Rugby structured their fixtures back then. Tonga rarely got to play against leading nations in full-blown tests so it was very rare for me to be released by Saints where I probably played the best rugby of my career.
I was a latecomer to rugby union. I only started playing when I was 15. Up until then I played rugby league. I struggled at first with rucking and scrummaging and lifting in the lineout but I got to grips with things and found it quite enjoyable.
It was Rudi Straeuli who brought me over to the UK from Auckland, initially for half a season at Bedford. He left but by then I’d already agreed another contract so I took that up and I’m glad I did. Playing under Mike Rayer, you were encouraged to get your hands on the ball, and that side of things came naturally to me.
Budge Pountney scouted for me Northampton and that’s when the setpiece side of my game really developed. Dorian West transformed the whole mindset of the forward pack and turned us into one of the Premiership’s most feared units. We went from just wanting to hold our own at scrum-time to dominating. It wasn’t just myself, Dylan Hartley and Brian Mujati who wanted to smash the opposition, it was all eight of us plus the guys on the bench.
A couple of years after reaching the 2011 Heineken Cup final, we got to the Premiership final but unfortunately lost to Leicester, Dylan’s sending off changed the course of the game. Once the red card came out, deep down the boys knew it would be a massive challenge, especially against the Tigers. It was my last game for Saints and while it would have been great to have won the trophy, looking back it was an achievement in itself that we even got there as nobody gave us a chance away to Sarries in the semi-final.
Brian and I were having a beer in Paris when the club lifted the Premiership trophy the following season, having signed for Racing Metro, as they were known back then, in the offseason. We said to each other beforehand as a joke, ‘they will win this’ and it turned out that they did. Obviously, we were very happy for them, it was just a shame we weren’t a part of it! I love studying the way players prepare differently for games but nothing could ever prepare you for what happens in France. I thought the idea of forwards head-butting one another to psyche each other up was a myth, a hangover from when the game was amateur, so I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw it for myself in our first pre-season friendly against La Rochelle. Playing in
France with Racing and Oyonnax enabled my young family and I to experience a different way of life and culture but eventually it became time to come home and I signed for Bristol. I might as well have been overseas, though, as all I’d ever known was the East Midlands.
Experiencing relegation and promotion in consecutive seasons was a bit bizarre but I enjoyed my time there. We only lost one game in the entire Championship campaign, against Jersey at home. Three or four of their boys actually signed for Bristol on the back of that win.
I was thinking that was it after my time at Bristol was up. But then my good friend and Tongan team-mate, Alexi Lutui, called me and said to come and join him and Maama Molitika at Ampthill. I’d never really had that many Tongans for company before so that was nice to link up with those boys and play a part in helping the club up to its highest-ever level.
Paul Turner, the Ampthill coach, is a really knowledgeable guy, he studies rugby, 24-7, and is always learning.
I am surprised he has a life outside of rugby; I don’t know how his wife puts up with it!
I think we started the season we won promotion from National One to the Championship with five or six straight defeats and a crisis meeting was promptly called. We then went unbeaten all the way from the New Year onwards which left us just needing a point against Loughborough on the final day to go up, which we managed without any dramas.
Now I’m at Chinnor, as a playercoach, or now, most probably, just as a coach. I’ve not made a final decision about playing but I’d like to – but think my body is telling me not to carry on. For me to be able to run around with my kids and walk around properly over the next few years, I think it would probably be best to hang up my boots.
Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed being a part of every changing room at every club I’ve been at. That sense of belonging you get, and that camaraderie and culture, is the reason why I stayed in the game until my 40th birthday and the reason why I am finding it difficult to give up.
“The camaraderie and the culture is the reason I stayed in the game until 40”