MAGNERS LEAGUE LEINSTER v MUNSTER:THE WEEK is a blur now. At the end of his rookie year, Isa Nacewa was a replacement as Auckland won the Air New Zealand Cup final in Wellington. After celebrating that night, the next day this raw 21 year-old flew to Australia as a late replacement to the Fijian World Cup squad – he qualified by dint of his Fijian father. The following Saturday he came on as a substitute in the 80th minute against Scotland in Fiji's final pool game.
The NPC final had been at the Westpac Stadium in what was Christian Cullen’s last game for Wellington. Cullen tried his best to beat Auckland, almost on his own, scoring two tries in front of his adoring home crowd before departing with the shoulder injury which would undermine much of his subsequent time in Munster.
But for Nacewa, the consequences of his flight the following morning would be even more long term. “I didn’t know how it would affect me at the time, but it was a World Cup and the buzz in “Aussie” was huge.”
It just never crossed his mind it would make him ineligible to ever play for the All Blacks and no one warned him. “Hindsight is a great thing but I am used to it now,” he says phlegmatically, and this tallies with descriptions of him by team-mates. Laid-back, popular and respected, he also assumes a leadership role on and off the pitch, all the more so when the marquee names are away.
IMMENSELY STRONG, skilful and, with that lolloping stride of his, deceptively quick, the versatile Nacewa has already played across the Leinster back line, save for scrumhalf, and thanks to those two minutes on November 1st, 2003, in Sydney’s Aussie Stadium, is never away on international duty. At 27, that amounts to quite a catch by the European champions. Expensive maybe, but highly valuable. He has never played for Fiji since. “I just didn’t want to. Fiji was always in a bit of a mess and I just made my main focus the NC and the Blues when I was there, and that kept me going.”
Estimates vary as to how many caps he might have won with the All Blacks, but after he had hired legal help, in 2006 the IRB rebuffed representations to have that two-minute cameo rescinded.
“There was talk of it. A few people, not managers, but external staff, wanted to go down that alley and I pursued it for a bit but when it didn’t happen I made my mind up I didn’t want to go down that route.”
He says he’s “completely happy” with how his career has gone, but even so, your mind casts back to Fiji’s pool decider against Wales in Nantes at the 2007 World Cup, when the Pacific islanders won a rollicking nine-try thriller by 38-34, and then gave the eventual champions, South Africa, the ready-up in the quarters. And you wonder if he didn’t have pangs of regret about playing for Fiji again.
Mike Brewer, Fiji’s technical adviser, has recently been quoted in Fiji as saying Nacewa and Scarlets’ prop Deacon Manu, have been sounded out about playing for Fiji this autumn – which would raise the intriguing prospect of Nacewa playing against Ireland at, of all places, the RDS – but Nacewa would appear to be giving it short shrift.
“I grew up in New Zealand and played all my rugby in New Zealand. It’s still a big part of my lifestyle, Fijian stuff, but I didn’t have as much of a feeling to go and play with them. Once I made my decision to come over to Leinster it’s been my number one priority. All the internationals go away for these camps and miss a few games, and that’s why I see my role as stepping in and assuming a bit of leadership.”
THE SON OF a Fijian father and New Zealand mother, one of his three sisters and his brother live in Sydney, another is in Queenstown in New Zealand, while another sister is a physio in London and is over this weekend for the Munster game. His mother arrives over in February, not least because his fiancée, Simone, is expecting twins on New Year’s Eve. “As soon as I found out we were having twins: ‘Mum, can you come over?’” admits Nacewa with a laugh.
His dad played some rugby with Auckland Marist, and in hardy, time-honoured fashion, Nacewa recalls one of his first games there: “I think I was five and I was barefoot and it was a frosty Saturday morning. That’s what it used to be like. Cut-up oranges at half-time,” he chuckles. “All those years ago.”
Nacewa also played throughout his school years at Auckland Grammar School, always making the first XV through the age groups, before studying physical education at Auckland University.
“I enjoyed my time at uni as well,” he says, before one his coaches, Shane King, persuaded an initially reluctant Nacewa, then 20, to have a trial with the Auckland under-21s.
“It all started to snowball from there. I wasn’t as serious as I probably could have been but he brought me from there into the Auckland Academy, and it kicked on to the NPC.”
In his first year with Auckland he was coached by Grant Fox, whom he describes as “a real down-to-the-detail type of coach” before progress to the Blues meant he encountered Joe Schmidt, currently the Clermont backs coach.
“He is the Mr Rugby in my mind. He taught me most of the stuff that I know about a back line in the three years I was with him at the Blues. He had a young mind into the game, and he really knows the game of rugby – the reasons why you do moves.”
With his progression to the Blues in ’04 came the move from centre to wing, after which he alternated between outhalf and fullback, along the way playing with the likes of Doug Howlett, Joe Rokocoko, Rua Tipoki, Anthony Tuitavake and Luke McAlister.
“It was such a good bunch of guys to play with. There was a core of us there and everyone enjoyed their rugby. In ’07 we went to a semi-final against the Sharks, before Doug left, and though we didn’t win it was one of the most fun seasons.”
He reckons the competition is even greater at Leinster, and is conscious the label “utility back” can carry the distinct whiff of jack of all trades – master of none. “But if you’re getting game time you don’t complain.”
Last season, Nacewa made four starts at 15, seven at 10, three at 11, one at 12 and two at 14.
In truth, he never looked completely natural at outhalf, whereas he often looks best when roaming from fullback or wing. You politely suggest to him he’s not exactly from the Ronan O’Gara school of tactical kickers, and he admits candidly, “Absolutely. It’s something that I realised when I came up here – how much better kickers were, overall, in the Northern Hemisphere. And it’s been part of my game that I’ve worked on in my first year in Leinster with our kicking coach (Richie Murphy) and this year I’ll try to improve it further.”
He himself favours fullback. “It’s that freedom to run a bit more. You can get in as first receiver throughout a game but you’ve also got the space to move around and make decisions from fullback.”
HAVING HIT THE ground running last season, he broke his forearm late on against the Ospreys a week before Leinster hosted Munster and was sidelined until December. He turns the inside of his left arm outward to run his finger along the huge scar he has as a memento. “It was pretty tough. Coming over here I just wanted to play and then I was out for 12 weeks. To be honest, I didn’t miss that much rugby, bar the (first) two Heineken Cup games and five Magners League because of the November internationals. So if I was to break my arm, that was the time to do it,” he reasons with an ironic smile.
Whereupon, after 13 years of trying, Leinster reached their Holy Grail in Nacewa’s first campaign. That semi-final last May at Croke Park is, he says simply, the highlight of his career.
“My sister came over from London for that game and she had never experienced anything like it. She still talks about it now. Such a fierce rivalry and the biggest club attendance in the world. That’s one game you’ll never forget.”
Does he realise how lucky he was?
“I think that really hit home when I saw the looks on the faces of Girv (Dempsey), Shaggy (Horgan), Drico and Mal (Kelly) after the final. I’d only been here a year but I knew how much it meant to them and that was actually the most pleasing thing, I think.”
Leinster have eked out three wins without hitting their straps yet, but now comes the ultimate domestic barometer of their well-being.
“When I was back in New Zealand, you always heard about Munster, and you look at their track record too. They’ve got the results to back it up. Even though we won Europe, you know they’re as good as any side around on their day.”
He’s never had a moment’s regret about the move, and loves the big-game buzz of every match at the RDS compared to Eden Park, where 14,000 turned up to see an unbeaten Auckland win the ANZ Cup final.
Coming into what should be the best years of his career and in the second year of his two-year deal, it’s no wonder he says: “If they want me to stay I’ll definitely stay. I love my time here. You can’t complain playing with the guys around you. For the squad this weekend, there’s 13 or 14 Irish internationals, so it’s a good team to be part of. I’d love to stay on.”
A Kiwi with no time for regrets, who is only looking forward.
Isa Nacewa
Date Of Birth
July 22nd, 1982
Birthplace
Auckland
Height
1.80m (5ft 11in)
Weight
88kg (13st 12lb)
School
Auckland Grammar
School Position
Utility Back
Auckland caps
54 (212 points,
21 tries, 34 cons,
19 pens)
Blues caps
44 (208 points,
13 tries, 25 cons,
31 pens)
Leinster caps
22 (24 points, 3 tries, 3 drop goals).
Honours
Fiji (1 cap), Air New Zealand Cup winner with Auckland (2003, ’05. ’07), Air New Zealand Cup Player of the Year 2007, Super 14 semi-finalist with Auckland Blues (2007), Heineken Cup winner with Leinster (2009).
