Rona has few concrete plans
Daniel Rona knows all about making every post a winner.
He’s a former concreter, after all. And after leaving the worksite in Taranaki last year to become a breakout performer in an injury-hit Chiefs midfield, he is continuing to show he has all the tools to cement a spot at Super Rugby Pacific level, and perhaps beyond, by literally winging it in this impressive follow-up season.
Having never played a game on the wing in his life until eight weeks ago, the 23-yearold has now three times started for the Chiefs on the flanks, crossing the tryline in each of them, highlighted by a hat-trick (which he can never remember achieving at any level before) in last Saturday night’s 56-7 demolition of the Force at Waikato Stadium.
Talk about making it look like he knows what he’s doing, for a man who still has a definite preference for the No 13 jersey.
“It was pretty easy, all I did was catch the ball and put it down on a couple of them,” Rona said. “We’ve got really good attack, so it’s nice to be on the end of it.”
Having gone through pre-season with the Chiefs ahead of the 2023 season as one of 18 replacement players, Rona was one of four to receive 30 additional training days. Only, the days kept adding up, as each week he was in the playing team, it didn’t eat into his allocation.
After debuting in round-three, he went on to play nine matches (including five starts), proving a more than useful addition in the absence of All Blacks Quinn Tupaea (knee, season) and Anton Lienert-Brown (ankle, half the campaign), that come May he had put pen to paper with the Hamilton-based franchise on a three-year deal through to 2026.
But, even with the departure of Alex Nankivell, with those two big-names back in the midfield frame this year, as well as the presence of highly-reliable vice-captain Rameka Poihipi, it was still going to be a challenge to rack up the game-time in 2024.
Or not, with Rona in fact playing all of the first eight games of the season, thanks to a bolt from the blue and a naming in the No 14 jersey for the round-four clash against the Fijian Drua.
“It was my first-ever time playing there, so I was a bit shocked when they put me there,” he said of that wing selection.
“That first week was a bit rattling, I had to get my book and get around the boys. But it worked out all right.”
Had he shown the coaches a bit too much pace then, to get this switch to wider out?
“I’ve got no pace, that’s the thing, that’s why I’m not a winger,” Rona laughed. “Maybe if I was faster I’d be a bit more comfortable out there.
“[But] they’ve always thought of me of a midfielder that can cover wing ... I think they like to have us middies covering another position. It’s good to be able to.”
Indeed, that versatility factor is proving more than handy for coach Clayton McMillan, as even though All Blacks winger Emoni Narawa is back on the right wing, the hamstring injury to fullback Shaun Stevenson and Etene Nanai-Seturo’s shift there has opened up the left wing spot for Rona to at the weekend make it three different starting jerseys in his six starts this year.
“It doesn’t matter where you chuck him,” McMillan said, “I think he’s even jumped on the side of the scrum − I think he did a pretty piss-poor job of that actually,” he jested − “but most of the time he does a good job, he is a good decision-maker, has silky skills, is deceptively quick, and he’s just a good man. So he’s only going to get better and better.”
Having grown up playing halfback, before at high school moving to first-five, then second-five, then to centre once he left school, and now all the way to the wing, Rona quipped he’s “slowly getting pushed out ... hopefully I don’t get pushed right out”.
“Obviously I want to be playing 13, but if I’m not, then that’s all good, as long as I’m on the field I’m happy.”