‘GRANDADDY’ TIATIA ON HIS LEGACY AT LIBERTY
Why it’s hard to find an ‘import’ who’s done more for Welsh game than Filo...
IF you search Filo Tiatia on
YouTube, the first clip you’ll see is of the flanker scoring for New Zealand against Italy in 2000. The third clip you’ll find is another of his tries – this time for the Ospreys against Ulster in 2007.
There are some similarities in the scores. Both moves were started by Justin Marshall.
But we can do a little better than that when it comes to links.
The first clip, that try against Italy, sees Tiatia hit with a late cheap shot from Azzurri centre Giovanni Ranieri. The All Black is less than impressed and something of a scuffle breaks out.
Onto that score against Ulster. Again, Tiatia is walking over for a score, when he sees an opponent approaching as he’s readying himself to dot down. It looks like another shot is coming his way.
Suddenly, the right shoulder of Tiatia is raised. Poor Ulster player Matt McCullough is sent sprawling to the turf. The commentator can only do his best to stifle laughter.
Tiatia touches down, not a willing tackler around him. Fool me once, and all that.
It’s a clip that shows just how fearsome the back-rower was – but it’s a moment the humble man himself somewhat regrets.
“Yeah, I regret that now as he wasn’t trying to tackle,” admits the 48-year-old.
“This is probably the first time I’ve spoken about it. I thought he was going to tackle me.
“I checked after if he was okay when he was on the ground and he said ‘Sorry mate, I thought you were just going to put it down’.
“I felt really bad so I kept checking in on him during the game as he’s a good bugger!”
It’s that attitude that seems to sum up Tiatia over the course of the hour or so of this interview.
There’s no doubting the former Ospreys star is tough as teak, but words aren’t something he wastes on proving it. When you lead through action, pontificating about it is something for others to waste their time on.
As such, every word he speaks is considered. It’s little wonder his team-mates used to hang off every word he said.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE GRANDADDY
Ask anyone involved in the Ospreys during their most successful period about who was the catalyst to their success and there’s a good chance Tiatia’s name would come up.
Martyn Williams once quipped he was the one player Xavier Rush was scared of. Another writer called him ‘the single most influential player the Ospreys ever signed’.
Yet, typically, if you ask him about that title, Tiatia states it’s not for him to say.
“Oh, I don’t know if I had much of an influence with my time, but I truly did enjoy playing my part and growing a very young team and pulling together, because it was a very unique opportunity.
“I can only talk for myself as I can’t read minds but I did get a nickname very soon on!
“The hooker, Barry Williams, was called the daddy. And then I turned up and was the oldest of the group and they started calling grandaddy. “I didn’t actually like it!
“But it felt like there was a bit of a responsibility being the oldest in the group.”
Early on in his time in Wales, he stumbled across a newspaper article that would provide motivation throughout his spell in Swansea.
“It was about imports – players like myself and a lot of good friends that came to add value to the regions,” he explains.
“And it was quite a cutting article about us taking the locals’ jobs. It sort of hit home in some of the words that this reporter was saying about some friends of mine – that they weren’t any good and they were a waste of time.
“And I actually ripped the article out after one of my teammates pointed out that was the reason why ‘so and so’ had lost his job at the Ospreys.
“I took it personally. I just smiled, didn’t say anything and kept that article tucked away.
“It was a little bit of a motivation for me, that I was there for a certain reason.
“To make sure that I played my best but also galvanise the young group that was there.
“When we lost a lot of our international players to represent their country, it was important that myself and the players that were left behind actually grabbed the flag and moved it forward.
“And so we forged a pact that standards wouldn’t drop.”
‘WOULD YOU DO THAT IN FRONT OF YOUR MOTHER?..’
For standards not to drop, behavioural changes would have to be made.
“There were a lot of things that needed to change from a cultural perspective. I just felt there was a lot of hypocrisy, wrongly or rightly.
“People would say one thing, but then do something completely different. I guess it sort of happened over, particularly the first year.
“For teams to be competitive and to be professional, you need to be really consistent in our behaviours. And at that time, there were a few challenges around some of the behaviours that the team were doing that for me and others didn’t feel acceptable.
“And I guess there were different ways of trying to educate the players that it was probably unacceptable.
“There were a lot of questions around some of the things we did. And then internally, it was about how we grab a group of players from a leadership point of view to change some behaviours that we were doing that were actually affecting others in different ways.
“The analogy is, I guess, would you do something or say something in front of your mother? You probably wouldn’t.
“It’s little things but in the grand scheme of things, they become big when it comes down to the crunch of who would actually stay in the fight and wouldn’t give up.
“There were a lot of question marks for me with players I was going shoulder to shoulder with. Pressure does different things to different people.
“But we quickly got over that and we drew a line in the sand. All the players agreed to it with management staff and we forged ahead with it.
“We created something that no one can take away. It’s all written in stone. We had some really key people that were critical to their success.”
One such player was Jerry Collins. Former Ospreys prop Paul James revealed that the late All Black legend looked up to one man in particular at the region.
“The man he really respected during his time in Wales was Filo Tiatia, because JC would have been Filo’s apprentice when he was coming through in Wellington,” James told
WalesOnline last year.
“If Filo spoke everybody listened, including Jerry.”
It speaks volumes to the character that Collins was that everyone has a story to tell about him. For Tiatia, many of the stories are too personal to share.
However, he did reveal he played a part in bringing Collins to west Wales.
“It was an interesting story. He was in Toulon with Tana Umaga at the time.
“Tana rang up and he said I need a bit of help. I was about to retire as a player-coach and move into full time coaching.
“Long story short, I rang up Scott Johnson and said Jerry Collins’ is off contract with Toulon, would you be interested?
“Johnno was very keen to get Jerry on board with the Ospreys.
“Jerry was a good fit. For me, he had a very loyal, blue collar mentality.
“He played for people and had a real purpose of doing things for others. Things that others wouldn’t ask of him to do, he would just go and do it. That was probably the thing I loved a lot about Jerry is that he didn’t do
bells and whistles but he just wanted to do things for people and make them happy.
“That’s one thing that I’ll miss about Jerry.”
LEAVING SWANSEA WITH A LASTING LEGACY
In his time at the Ospreys, Tiatia helped the Ospreys to Magners League titles in 2007 and 2010, as well as a win over Australia in 2006 and an EDF Energy Cup victory in 2008.
He signed off in perfect style, with victory over Leinster at the RDS to win their second Magners League title – his 99th appearance for the region.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t get the opportunity to play games at a high level. For me to arrive at the young age of 34 and get close to a ton is pretty good.
“I wouldn’t say it was a fairytale ending, but for a 38-year-old, it was a satisfying one.”
The one regret was not progressing further in Europe. Three consecutive quarter-finals ended in disappointment. But eventually the time came to leave Swansea and the Ospreys. When he arrived, he knew little about Wales other than the fact his brother had played in Port Talbot and that his father had always wanted to watch a match in Cardiff.
By the time he left, his dad had achieved that. One ticked off the bucket list. As for Tiatia, he was embedded in the culture of the region.
“It was a great experience, coming over to the UK, meeting some great people, getting to know the short history of what they call Ospreylia and being a small part of what it is today.”
“They’re one of the best sets of fans I’ve ever had. The East side fans were, for me, the most loyal fans you could get when you were playing.
“When you pull on your jersey, you’re not just playing for yourself.
“The first time I pull it on, it’s for my friends and family. And then it’s for the Ospreys supporters.
Again, he would never admit the extent of the part he played in the Ospreys’ success. That’s just not him.
Beyond his achievements on the pitch, Swansea will always hold a special part in Tiatia’s heart.
“When me and my wife Sally arrived in Swansea, we had two kids. When we left, we had five. So it was a special place for us.
“We had our twin girls the day before the EDF final against Leicester. When it was time for us to move, it was hard in a million different ways.
“We made so many friends and we still stay connected to this day.
“For me to say that I’ll never be back in Swansea, I just don’t think that’ll happen. I’d love to come back to at some point and visit some friends”
After another stint in Japan, Tiatia has ended up coaching back in his home country with Auckland.
And yet, one eye is still on Swansea.
“I still watch their games. Seeing the guys I played with progress and go on to further things, playing for Wales or the Lions, it’s the best feeling as you’ve played a little part in their journey.
“It’s one of the things you can do as a player and a coach. How can you help pass on knowledge and experience?”
If that’s a part of his legacy in west Wales, maybe that article denouncing foreign imports was off the mark? Again, it’s not for Tiatia to say. “I don’t know if the article is wrong. There’s a lot of validity to some of the comments that the journalist wrote.
“But I think it’s just getting the balance right.”
It’s easy to come out with platitudes like that in hindsight. The difference is Tiatia means it.
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I rang up Scott Johnson and said Jerry Collins is out of contract at Toulon... would you be interested?
FILO TIATIA