Wow, the last decade has flown by so quickly. It doesn't seem that long since I left New Zealand for Manchester to start my first contract with Sale Sharks as a 27-year-old.
I'd been to England before and the thought of going back to the cold was depressing. My mindset was to play here until I was 30 and return to New Zealand. Who knew then that we'd come here as a family and settle and still be here now, with me transitioning from playing to coaching at the Sharks as an academy coach. Three of my five kids were born and raised here, and we love it; we have four little Mancs and a Kiwi girl, Brooklyn, who has just started university.
So how did the journey to the UK start for me? After seven great years with the mighty Manawatu Turbos, two seasons with the Highlanders, playing what was effectively contact touch rugby – the pace of play was incredible, the Samoa management asked me to trial for the upcoming Pacific Nations Cup with the carrot of a potential place in the 2011 World Cup squad. While we were in camp and out for a few cold ones, I got chatting to Tasesa Lavea, who had just signed with Sale. He mentioned they were looking for a midfielder and said he would forward my name to Steve Diamond. After a few conversations with Dimes, I signed a two-year contract.
For me, the more you know your centre partner, the easier it is on the pitch so when I asked Dimes who the other centre was and he told me it was Sammy (Tuitupou), an opportunity to pair up with him was big for me because I grew up watching him. He has such a kind nature to him off the field but when he puts his scrum cap on, his persona changes to a pitbull. When we played together, we didn't need to talk, we knew what each other would do because of our connection off the field.
From the first time I met my teammates at the Sharks, I knew it was gonna be an easy transition into the team. With my accent and slang it was a slow start. Boys said I would speak too fast for them; it was the same with them talking to me. When they would say ‘alright?' my reply would be ‘yes, I'm good thanks, you?', and they'd look at me weird. After a while boys explained it was like saying ‘hi' and gradually things fell into place and I became familiar with words such as daft (silly), hangin' (disgusting), mingin' (unpleasant), buzzing (excited) and ‘our kid' (close friend). To be honest, I couldn't tell the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish accents apart, so you can imagine what the Scottish lads were like when I asked them whereabouts in England they were from. I was learning on the run.
Adjusting to other aspects of life in England were even more difficult. I was born and raised in a small city compared with Manchester, where everything was just around the corner and you didn't have to worry about things like a TV licence or council tax, car insurance was optional, you could register with any GP and you could apply directly to the schools not through the council. When you are familiar with the system, doing these things one by one will be relatively straightforward but, as someone from the other side of the world trying to get everything set up before my family arrived in a month, it was pretty daunting. I'd like to think I've since been able to help others through a similar experience.
There were a lot of sacrifices with my family moving to Manchester, but with how everything turned out, they have been worthwhile. Being away from our family meant we missed out on a lot of family gatherings, birthdays, reunions and the hardest of them all, bereavements. After my wife had our first son in the first year of being in England, she decided that she wanted to play netball for NZ again so she would live there for eight months and four months in the UK. The kids stayed with me and she travelled back and forth, and the same thing happened after our third child came along until she came and settled to play netball here in the UK with Thunder and Severn Stars. It worked out well as she was appointed Leeds Rhinos Director of Netball earlier this year. I wasn't the best athlete in the house nor am I the best coach either.
Asides from being paid to hang out with friends who became like brothers, there were plenty of good and not-sogood times on the rugby field itself. If you asked me for a career highlight in a Sale shirt I'd say the game against Gloucester in my second season when I had the Mr T haircut. It was a way of raising funds for a boy called Luca who lost his legs through meningitis. I grew my hair from the start of December 2012 until the Gloucester game on April 12 2013 and only raised £450, which I didn't think was much. So, I posted on Twitter that if I got to £850 before the game, I would get a Mr T haircut, which I made and got the cut. It was quite an outrageous cut but it didn't affect my performance, the boys as a whole played well that day. After the game, donations started piling in and we raised £2,863.
Like I said, there were plenty of ups and downs – apart from the time we were stuck in a hotel lift in Bath on a matchday morning for nearly two hours, going nowhere. It said a minimum of 10 people, and we had eight in there but three of them were over 130kgs – Halani Aulika, Efion Lewis-Roberts and Brian Mujati. Most of us saw the funny side but Mike Phillips was getting a bit jumpy as he didn't like confined spaces. I can't remember how Dimes reacted but it can't have been too bad because if he was upset with you, you would know it. I liked that about him – he always told you how it was.
Being New Zealand born, I chased the All Black dream but it was with Samoa that I got to play Test rugby. I got selected for the 2011 World Cup but was the only player in the squad that didn't play, making me work harder on my game and Samoan heritage. Playing for Samoa gave me a better idea of my identity, and the memories and friendships I made made me a better player and person.
I have seen life from a different perspective as a player. Rugby to me wasn't about being famous or getting paid a lot of money, it was about being the best person I could be and giving my all for my team, my club and my family. Despite having a second ACL injury, I kept playing after my professional days were over – with Sale FC and then Lymm – whilst also getting a degree in business leadership and management. It was nice to play without the pressure of high-level rugby and head to the pub after for a few pints of cider without any guilt.
Having initially been employed in a player liaison role at Sharks, I'm 18 months into my coaching journey as an academy coach at the club. I enjoy working with a talented group of boys and learning from all the other coaches who have shared their knowledge and are happy to advise in areas to improve. On that note, our kid, I'll sign off !
