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'I get a lot of questions on how life on this side of the world is' - Wasps' Lima Sopoaga on his chats with former Kiwi teammates

By Liam Heagney
All Blacks Lima Sopoaga and Beauden Barrett with the Bledisloe Cup following a win over Australia in Dunedin in 2017 (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Wasps’ rare weekend off has left Lima Sopoaga plotting and planning for this Sunday’s Mother’s Day. When he was weighing up his choices of either sticking by the Dunedin-based Highlanders after eight Super Rugby seasons or embarking on a new adventure in the UK with Wasps, one temptation that helped swing the deal in favour of a Premiership move was the prospect of having Europe and other destinations nearby.

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Having made the move north the out-half has now got to live up to that promise nearing the end of a hectic campaign where he has featured in 20 of Wasps’ 27 matches across three competitions, a schedule that he has found tough to adjust to.

“When we get weeks off or time away I have been lucky enough to travel, so far that has been the big drawcard,” he told RugbyPass during a week where the Coventry club has taken stock before their end-of-season Premiership run-in.

“I guess that is how I convinced my partner to move to the other side of the world. I said that she would be able to see the world and see places that we have never seen before. I have been to Majorca in Spain so far, travelled to Dubai and got some sun.

“With Mother’s Day coming up I have got a bit of a surprise trip over the weekend. It’s going to be pretty cool. A lot of moving up here had to do with the opportunities that the UK offers being so close to Europe and being able to see things you’d never ever see living in little old New Zealand.

(Continue reading below…)

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“What better time to be young and fit and on the other side of the world. I can only speak for now. I probably wouldn’t be on this side of the world if it wasn’t for rugby and if it wasn’t for the opportunities that it has given me. I know when I am into my 30s and my 40s I will be back in New Zealand and coming this far around the world, that will be just a bit too much for me so why not enjoy it while I can.”

Home thoughts are never too far from the mind of the Lower Hutt 28-year-old. With Super Rugby back on the beat, the sleeping habits of his young daughter Milla ensures he keeps up with the action. “I still get up early and watch their games, probably because my daughter wakes up at 5:30 most mornings so I’m up anyway.

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“It’s cool to keep in touch with those boys and I get a lot of questions asking me how life on this side of the world is and I just let them know. It has been pretty cool to see what they are doing back home as a pure spectator fan now and I love it.”

He was also touched by the New Zealand reaction to the terror attacks in Christchurch. “For a Kiwi living abroad it was really disheartening to see such a disgusting act of terrorism happen on our shores. But also it was quite emotional as well to see the love and the support that the community had for each other, especially the Muslim community because they definitely needed a lot of love and support.

“I know those families are being well supported back home by strangers, by friends, by family so it’s heartwarming to know that in the midst of such travesty that Kiwis were there for each other.”

Family was a massive consideration why Sopoaga upped sticks. He had won 16 All Black caps under Steven Hansen and would have been a contender for squad inclusion for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

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However, the opportunity to financially help out his family with a salary reported to be worth around NZ$1million per year took precedence when he chose to follow the path taken by fellow former All Blacks Charles Piutau and Steve Luatua who left home at the peak of their careers. There are no regrets whatsoever nearing the end of year one of a two-and-a-half year deal.

“That’s professional sport and I made a decision based on what I thought was best for myself and for my family. Coming up here with Wasps being such a great club and having such good players and a great community that gets behind and supports them, that has definitely helped make that move so much easier. I have got to thank the club for that and the supporters for helping me adjust to life in the UK.

Wasps’ Lima Sopoaga avoids tackles from Carl Axtens (right) and Jerome Kaino of Toulouse during the Champions Cup in December 2018 (Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

“I come from a family of six kids and mum and dad. That’s a fairly standard island family, I’d say. Coming from a big family there wasn’t always much going around, but we had plenty of love and we had more than enough. Sometimes these decisions to play rugby abroad definitely have that factored in, but so far I’m enjoying my time at Wasps and while it has been difficult for me on the field personally and for the club, I know I’ll be better for it.”

Sopoaga quips that the UK winter took him by surprise. “I didn’t realise it was going to be so long and dark and cold.” Far more seriously, though, he is committed to making some off-season adjustments to ensure his second season in England will be far more rewarding than a first where Wasps are currently in eighth sport with just seven wins in 17 and a whole heap of losses that should have been wins.

“We have been on the wrong side of the ledger with the few games that we probably should have won. It just comes back to maybe a bit of confidence and sometimes that is a hard to thing to get. Unfortunately we have just missed the boat on a few of the games recently and we need to find that mojo quickly and get back to winning ways.

“When I first started rugby I was kind of like life or death and I used to get pretty dark (about losing), but having a family has definitely puts some perspective on winning and losing rugby games these days. It’s tough but at the end of the day when I go home and see my daughter, she is not worried about whether I have won or lost a football game. She just wants to see her dad. Sometimes things are really put into perspective.

Lima Sopoaga was in attendance at Kenilworth RFC after their ladies side won a nationwide competition launched by Gallagher, the community insurance broker and proud title partner of Premiership Rugby

“I’d say after this year I will be evaluating the year that it has been. I’d say I will make a few adjustments heading into next season. It’s very physical over here. That is what I noticed straightaway, that guys are a lot bigger over here.

“It’s very dominated by physicality and that is a big difference. And you play so many games and have so many different competitions. Bouncing in and out of one or the other has been a challenge for me in learning how to deal with the rigours of rugby up here.”

UK rugby, though, does have its lighter moments. Having grown up in the Wellington area and been inspired by All Blacks on his doorstep, he knows the value of giving back and he didn’t hesitate in helping out on Wednesday night when Wasps held a Gallagher Premiership Train with your Heroes session with the Kenilworth Ladies rugby team.

“There was always a lot of the local talent floating around the club scene,” said Sopoanga about his grassroots upbringing. “We had Ma’a Nonu, Piri Weepu, Neemia Tialata when we were growing up, idolising them and seeing them.

“That was always pretty cool and I now really enjoy coming back to grassroots. For any rugby player, especially ones from New Zealand, grassroots rugby played a pivotal role in giving us that dream to play professional rugby. To come back and give back to the community, especially women’s rugby, is pretty special.

“I do think the women’s game has a big future, especially you look at the rugby sevens and what has done of the women’s game. You can just look around the world and there is some exceptional women’s talent going around. The girls play this game just as good as the guys and it’s pretty cool to see. It can only be better for the sport.”

Wasps trio Lima Sopoaga, Ashley Johnson and Willie Le Roux put Kenilworth Ladies RFC through their paces after the grassroots club won a Gallagher Insurance Train with your Heroes competition
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Jon 33 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

32 Go to comments
j
john 3 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 7 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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