1
'I watched his highlights montages before games and that didn't help': Solomon Alaimalo's frightening introduction to Super Rugby
Solomon Alaimalo is heading south for Super Rugby 2021, having signed a three-year deal with the Highlanders. The Auckland-born speedster represented the Chiefs from 2017 until 2020 but decided that it was time to make a change, and will return to the island where he was born and raised.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The XV, Alaimalo revealed that one of the key motivators behind the move was the opportunity to stake a claim for the No 15 jersey, with Damian McKenzie a mainstay and automatic selection at fullback for the Chiefs.
Alaimalo, however, earned his Super Rugby stripes playing on the wing and in just his second New Zealand derby, was tasked with marking World Rugby Player of the Year nominee for 2014 and 2015, Julian Savea.
“My confidence took off after a game against the Hurricanes in 2017,” Alaimalo told The XV. “That was one of my first starts and I’ve never been so nervous because I was marking Jules.”
While in years gone by, match footage was only available for professional coaching set-ups for review processes, the rise and rise of YouTube has ensured that anyone, anywhere in the world can get their hands on highlights packages of games or individual players.
That may have with preparation, but it can also have the opposite effect.
“I remember asking a few of the boys, ‘Bro, how am I supposed to tackle this guy? If I go up high, he’s going to bump me off. If I go off low, he’s going to step over me.’ To this day, I’ve never been so fixated on an opposition player – I watched his highlights montages before games and that didn’t help. I was just psyching myself out.”
It didn’t take long in the match for Alaimalo and Savea to go head-to-head and thankfully, Alaimalo had a teammate on hand to help deal with the incoming ‘Bus’.
“He got the ball on the edge and he was real close to the sidelines. I was just inside him and I was sure he was going to go over me, but I just closed my eyes and I tried to wrap his legs and then I just felt someone get over the top – I think it might have been Sam Cane – and we bundled him out.”
Cane, of course, is one of the most aggressive defenders in the New Zealand game and one of the toughest players around, and while Alaimalo may well have had the technique necessary to bring down the 108 kilo, 6-foot 3-inch Savea on his own, Cane’s presence no doubt helped put a stopper on the Hurricanes winger’s rampage.
It was a confidence-boosting moment for Alaimalo and no doubt an episode that the outside back can call on if he ever needs to remind himself that he’s capable of taking any player down.
“After that, it was all good. I had a pretty good game and my confidence from then on was fine – but it was obviously scary at the time.”
Alaimalo is now well into pre-season training with the Highlanders and should be fit and ready for his new side’s pre-season clash with the Crusaders in the coming weeks, having been sidelined since the middle stages of the 2020 Super Rugby Aotearoa season.
Comments on RugbyPass
Except for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
33 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
33 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
33 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
33 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
33 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to comments