Early in my career I was playing a club game in Christchurch for Marist Albion.
A teammate had taken it into contact and I was the supporting player so had to clean the ruck ahead of me.
I had come from the fly-half position and had a good start of five metres to clean out the ruck.
My target, already over the ball, was future All Black Mose Tuiali’i.
I knew I had to throw everything into it if I was going to move 112kgs.
I will be first to admit my technique at the time was not great, but I threw myself into it and hit Tuiali’i with everything I had.
WHAM!
I got completely bounced.
Tuiali’i didn’t move and inch I utterly smoked myself.
As a young player, this was a good lesson for me – when 79kgs hits a player of 112 kgs with average technique the bigger, stronger player will always win.
After this incident I was brutally honest with myself.
While I was in good shape and really fit (20 on the YoYo), I needed to build a hell of a lot more muscle if I was to compete at the highest level.

A teammate had taken it into contact and I was the supporting player so had to clean the ruck ahead of me.
I had come from the fly-half position and had a good start of five metres to clean out the ruck.
My target, already over the ball, was future All Black Mose Tuiali’i.
I knew I had to throw everything into it if I was going to move 112kgs.
I will be first to admit my technique at the time was not great, but I threw myself into it and hit Tuiali’i with everything I had.
WHAM!
I got completely bounced.
Tuiali’i didn’t move and inch I utterly smoked myself.
As a young player, this was a good lesson for me – when 79kgs hits a player of 112 kgs with average technique the bigger, stronger player will always win.
After this incident I was brutally honest with myself.
While I was in good shape and really fit (20 on the YoYo), I needed to build a hell of a lot more muscle if I was to compete at the highest level.