Ma’a Nonu heads back to the Blues
Super Rugby and Ma’a Nonu were a bad combination from 2011 to 2013. It didn’t make sense. Nonu had proven himself as a world class midfielder. He was more than an All Black regular – he was an All Black rock and his partnership with Conrad Smith was recognised globally as something special.
He was also a Hurricanes legend. A local boy who loved his city: loved his team. But when new coach Mark Hammett arrived, he didn’t like what he found. He wasn’t keen on Nonu’s attitude nor that of captain Andrew Hore either and amazingly both were fired. That was massive surprise number one.
The second came when Nonu, after a year with the Blues in 2012, decided to leave despite having given incoming coach John Kirwan a verbal reassurance he’d be staying.
Surprise number three was probably the biggest. Nonu had ditched the Blues for the Highlanders but a year down there... and guess what..? He wanted to leave but this time no one in New Zealand wanted him. He was on the verge – four days away – from being granted another sabbatical in France when Kirwan questioned why he was reluctant to forgive Nonu: “I thought about why I was thinking like that, and thought ‘ Get over yourself JK, move on’. And if there’s a world class number 12 available, why wouldn’t you go and talk to him?
“We went through the process long and hard and thought about it. And I think that we’re just excited to have the world’s best midfield back playing for the Blues next year.”
The story didn’t finish there. Nonu, unbelievably, is returning to Wellington in 2015 to play for the Hurricanes.