A World Cup victory may be the highest honour a player can achieve, but it's not Richard Kahui's career highlight
As a boy, Richard Kahui always aspired to be an All Black – that was the goal from day one.
Shoulder injury after shoulder injury didn’t curtail Kahui’s ambitions, with the Tokoroa-born midfielder making his All Blacks debut in 2008 at the age of 23.
Still, Kahui spent considerably less time on the field than he would have liked, with more than one season written off due to his seemingly endless injuries.
Come 2011, Kahui was finally able to stay fit, allowing him to assist New Zealand in claiming their first World Cup win in over two decades.
Given the midfielder-cum-wing’s childhood dreams, you would assume that a World Cup winner’s medal would be his proudest achievement as a rugby player – but that’s not the case.
“Obviously we hadn’t won [the World Cup] in so many years, there was a lot of pressure,” Kahui remembers.
‘Lots of pressure’ might be an understatement – no country is more fanatical about its rugby than New Zealand. It had been a constant thorn in Kiwis sides for years that their team, despite being the best in the world for season after season, hadn’t brought home the Web Ellis Cup since 1987.
You only have to look at the vitriol that Kahui’s Waikato, Chiefs and All Blacks teammate Stephen Donald faced in 2010 after making a bad mistake in the dying stages of a Bledisloe Cup fixture.
New Zealand fans love rugby players when their winning, but it’s a completely different story when they’re not.
For Kahui, at least in the formative days after the 2011 World Cup win, what came was more a feeling of a relief; the All Blacks had finally got the monkey off their back.
The utter joy of the victory didn’t come until later but, regardless, that’s not the win that Kahui ranks as the highlight of his career.
A soldier not a general
Persistent injuries meant that Richard Kahui accrued just 17 caps for the All Blacks. Six of those came during the World Cup. Despite being on the professional scene for quite some time, he was always a relatively junior member of the side.
“When I was in the All Blacks, I was just a soldier,” Kahui muses.
“You have you generals – your Dan Carters, Richie McCaws etc – that were running the team.
“I was just a kid running around, doing my best.”
Kahui’s best, as any All Blacks supporter will attest to, was pretty damn good.
Still, most of Kahui’s influence in the national set-up was on the field, whereas he took a back seat in the organisation of the team.
“I think the more responsibility you have within the team, you feel the bigger sense of achievement.”
It wasn’t at the All Blacks where Kahui initially made a name for himself, of course.
Chief in charge
The blockbusting defender started out his Super Rugby career with the Highlanders in 2006 where he notched up eight appearances – primarily on the wing.
A year later he was called up to represent his local Chiefs, a side he managed to earn 60 caps for over seven seasons.
Richard Kahui’s 2007 season may have been cut short thanks to his first major shoulder injury, but a year later he came back with a vengeance, and it was that profitable 2008 Super Rugby stint with the Chiefs that earned him his first All Blacks call-up.
Despite a number of setbacks, Kahui still earned his stripes with the Waikato-based team and when they finally won their first Super Rugby title in 2012, Kahui was one of the more experienced players.
“With the Chiefs, I was in the leadership group and the attack group – we were putting stuff together all the time – so when you get the result you feel like a big part of that is you,” Kahui says.
That initial title was built on some astute coaching from Dave Rennie – in his first year as a head coach at that level – and his support team, including guru Wayne Smith.
The Chiefs coaching staff had taken somewhat of a ‘moneyball’ approach to recruitment that year, bringing in a number of young players who weren’t necessarily highly rated or hadn’t yet proven their capabilities.
“We didn’t have a team with many names in it,” Kahui reflects.
“Obviously we had Sonny [Bill Williams] and guys that are going to be some of the greats, guys like Brodie Retallick and Sam Cane. Aaron Cruden was unreal, so was Tawera Kerr-Barlow. They’re all All Blacks now but they weren’t at the time.”
Taking a team of relative unknowns all the way to the championship certainly ranks high on the list for Kahui, in terms of his career achievements.
Super Rugby is also a distinctly different competition compared to the likes of a World Cup.
“The World Cup is such a short thing, whereas in Super Rugby you’ve got to build something throughout the whole year because you’re inevitably going to have your losses and your wins.
“I really felt like, with the Chiefs that year, we actually built something that carried the team for the next three, four, five years. There are still parts of it you’re seeing a little bit of now.”
All that being said, come the finals series of both the 2012 and 2013 title wins, Richard Kahui found himself sitting on the sidelines, away from the action.
In May of 2012, Kahui’s season was cut short due to one of his many shoulder injuries. Almost a year later to the day, history repeated itself.
“I didn’t play in either final which is obviously disappointing,” Kahui reflects.
“We won them – the Chiefs won them – but I don’t feel like I’ve won one.”
So, with neither the Chiefs’ title wins nor the All Blacks’ World Cup victory taking out top spot in Kahui’s mind, what does he consider to be his most satisfying rugby accomplishment?
Look to the 2006 provincial season, when Richard Kahui first made a real name for himself on the professional scene as a 21-year-old.
Creating a legacy with Waikato
It’s become increasingly rare in recent times to see top All Blacks turn out in the current iteration of New Zealand’s provincial competition, the Mitre 10 Cup.
You have to look back to the mid-2000s to really see full-strength provinces on display, and that’s when Kahui announced himself as a player of immense potential to the wider New Zealand fan-base.
“That’s still one of the greatest years of my life,” Kahui says of 2006.
It was the year that Waikato took out the Air New Zealand Cup, beating Wellington 37-31 in the final. Along the way to their championship run, Waikato lost just once during the season – by three points to Otago.
“I think if I had to pick which [title] was the best, without making anyone angry, I would probably say that Waikato one.”
Kahui was the competition’s top try-scorer that year and also had a hand in the team’s tactics and strategy. He wasn’t just a solider like with the All Blacks, he was one of the commanding officers.
“That was the year us smaller guys put a lot of effort into how we were going to play and understood the defence. I was sort of running the defence as well, with Marty [Holah] and Batesy [Steven Bates].”
For a young player, only still in the early stages of a full-time professional career, it helped to be rubbing shoulders with the All Blacks that were littered throughout the top teams. You only have to look at the two squads that contested the final to see how different it is to today.
Wellington trotted out All Blacks Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith, Tana Umaga, Piri Weepu, Rodney So’oialo and Jerry Collins. The then-uncapped Cory Jane, who was Kahui’s partner on the wings at the 2011 World Cup, also lined up.
It was a similar story on Waikato’s side of the trenches.
“If you look at our starting lineup, there’s only one player there that didn’t play – or go onto play – international rugby. Everyone else did. Marty Holah, Mils Muliaina, Sitiveni Siviatu, David Hill, Jono Gibbes [as well as the likes of Stephen Donald, Byron Kelleher, Sione Lauaki and Keith Robinson]…
“Then we had Liam Messam, Aled de Malmanche and Brendon Leonard on the bench.
“That’s a lot of internationals.”
“I felt like we were blessed to have probably the last really good year of the provincial comp, where the All Blacks were still there. And they played pretty much the whole year.”
It’s not hard to see why Richard Kahui has such fond memories of that 2006 championship. It was that provincial competition that really catapulted him into the spotlight and he had the chance to not just run out alongside some legends of the game, but also work with them to form a plan to take out the trophy.
As far as seasons go, you’d struggle to find anything better.
“That year, that whole year, was probably the greatest of my career and set me on the path to playing for the Chiefs, playing for the All Blacks, and winning the World Cup.
“The sense of achievement was massive.”
This is the second in a three-part series on Richard Kahui – his life before, during and after he achieved his dream of becoming an All Black. Read part one here.
Comments on RugbyPass
Gregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
2 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
2 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
9 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
39 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to comments