Ahio reflects on stunning try
Sione Ahio had contemplated what a best possible first play in Super Rugby Pacific might look like, but true to form for any legitimate front-rower, he quickly veered his mind back to winning contacts and dominating set-pieces.
Come just after 8pm last Saturday at Waikato Stadium, then, the debutant prop must have thought he had drifted into dreamland with what unfolded fresh upon entering the fray against Moana Pasifika.
Into the action in the 52nd minute of the Chiefs’ record-breaking 68-12 win, Ahio was all of a minute later giving a pass to Damian McKenzie to ignite a play that will be inked in his memory forever.
With McKenzie chipping over the top, Wallace Sititi (more on him later) regathered, gave inside to Emoni Narawa, and who was on the All Blacks speedster’s shoulder when he was drawing the last defender? None other than Ahio, of course, with the 120kg tighthead able to canter 25 metres for a quite stunning score.
“It was crazy, I couldn’t really believe it, to be honest,” he says, three days on.
“I just heard Slim [McKenzie] calling for it, so I just gave it straight to him and let him do the rest ... I was fresh and all the boys had been working hard, so I knew I had to make a big impact. I just saw D-Mac put the chip over, I thought I’d track just in case we get it.
“To be honest, it felt like an eternity to the line ... it felt like 50 [metres] eh, but I watched it back and the clip was done in about two seconds.”
So just how many times has Ahio allowed himself to watch his quarter-of-the-field epic back, then?
“I tried not to too much,” he says. “I kind of just enjoyed it over the weekend with my friends and family, but when Monday came around I tried my best to push it to the side.”
Easier said than done, mind you, when in the team’s video review “one of our coaches put it up and all the boys got around it again”.
“The best part was probably seeing all the boys running in, no-one was waiting at the halfway line, a few pats on the back and everyone was just happy for me.”
Similarly with the feelings it generated for Ahio’s parents, who weren’t part of the 20-odd friends and family in the stands, but had watched on from home in Auckland.
“I made sure the first thing I did when I got home was give them a video call,” he says.
“They were over the moon, really emotional about it. I was just grateful to see them happy, that was probably the best part of the night.”
Born in Auckland after his parents had moved from Tonga, Ahio is not only the youngest of four children, but also the youngest of the cousins who grew up at the same house, and while his parents were a bit softer on the baby of the group, it was hardly the same with the older kids in the family during his upbringing.
“They always made us run at each other in the backyard and I think that’s what brought rugby into my life, and built a bit of character, I’d say.”
Schooled through Liston College, Ahio then credits the Waitemata Rugby Club for giving him the opportunities to get to where he has today.
So, has he scored any better tries than this, ever?
“Nah, not even many in general,” Ahio quips. “If I do it’s just a catch and put it down, or put the head down from two metres out.
“I’m just hoping that no-one expects me to do that every game.”
Despite the exhilaration on the run to the line, Ahio still had time to remember to stick the tongue out − a gesture for longtime mate Vaiolini Ekuasi, who had done the same when scoring for the Rebels last year, and had subsequently copped some grief from his Auckland NPC team-mates.
“I always used to get into him for that,” Ahio says.
“He messaged me the day after and got into me and said he better not hear anything about him with his tongue out since I did it myself.”
Ahio’s phone was indeed a popular place on Saturday night, as the messages flooded in.
“I was just making sure to reply and say thanks, because everyone that messaged me played a part in my journey to get here.”
After making the Auckland side in 2021 (for whom he has no tries for in his 15 games, by the way), Ahio had also represented the Blues Under-20s and New Zealand Under-20s the same year.
And when the Chiefs came looking for a tighthead for this season, coach Clayton McMillan had manager Martyn Vercoe give a good recommendation on the youngster from the pair’s time together in the NZ U20s.
“Donk [McMillan] asked Vercs his thoughts on me, and I guess Vercs backed me up, which I’m grateful for. And Donk just gave me a call and asked if I was keen. And I said ‘send me down to Hamilton’.”