MA’A SUPER NO-NO
Ma'a Nonu had been to the 2003 World Cup in his rookie All Blacks season. He wasn't quite ready for test football back then, a point the coaching panel conceded when they didn't pick him at centre after Tana Umaga had damaged his knee.
For the next three years Nonu was in and out of the squad until late 2006 when he stormed into form and persuaded the All Blacks by the end of the year that he was probably their first choice No 12.
But somehow it went horribly wrong in Super Rugby. The Hurricanes had a terrible campaign and Nonu played like a bag of spanners.
He was almost unrecognisable from the player he had been in November. The All Blacks didn't lose total faith in him and they selected Nonu in the June tests but he didn't do enough to keep his place in the Tri Nations and amazingly he went from being near certainty to All Blacks casualty.
He was so down about it that he signed a contract with the Wests Tigers NRL club but never returned it.
He changed his mind, ripped up the Tigers contract and
ended up winning two World Cup medals in 2011 and 2015.
Maybe missing the 2007 tournament was the best thing that ever happened to him.