As a kid in New Zealand, you play cricket in summer and rugby in winter. I played cricket and hockey. Not rugby. I wasn't brawny enough for it. Or silly enough, perhaps.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I tried to play rugby but was never very good.
I come from a country that lives and breathes rugby, and I didn't think there would be anywhere else in the world that could be the same. But New Zealand takes it to another dimension. It's extraordinary how much passion Kiwis have for the game.
I wasn't picked for any of the sports teams at school because I was half the size of everyone else, but now everyone assumes I must have been some sort of rugby player.
I didn't have to play rugby that well, and I didn't have to play cricket that well, because I had this voice.
Rugby takes its toll.
In my youth I thought I was going to be a professional rugby player.
Before there was any chance to go to England, I changed schools, and it was rugby from there on in.
Playing football and rugby is the Samoan sport. It's part of the conversation at church. It's part of the conversation in their barbershops, in the grocery stores. It's what everyone is aware of and familiar with. They take a lot of pride in the beating you can take in the course of that sport.
I've always played sport. I played rugby, I was involved in athletics, I played cricket... I'm an outdoors kind of guy.
I thought that if I could play rugby on TV, I'd be able to get my mum a house. That was the driving factor.
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