'I'm not obsessive': Life in France and what's next for Ihaia West
Former Maori All Black Ihaia West would have energetically leapt out of bed in La Rochelle on Saturday morning buoyed by the emphatic news from home that Hawke’s Bay had done it again, successfully defending the Ranfurly Shield for the ninth time in this current reign. The famed Log o’ Wood holds a special place in the 29-year-old’s heart.
West had been part of a Junior All Blacks squad at a South African World Cup but it was the Ranfurly that really accelerated his career into the big time eight years ago. Not since 1969 had the province held the symbol of glory that to this day still means so much in New Zealand rugby.
However, with one swoosh in Dunedin – a dummy, a left-foot step, a startling burst of speed and a crowd-pleasing dive – the famine was over and a then 21-year-old red-headed Maori kid was suddenly the talk of the rugby grapevine from Napier to Invercargill and all points in between.
The success-starved Bay’s glorious reign was just a solitary game as they lost the following week, but they were quick learners and the bird gang’s current run of nine successful defences is the most by any side since their run of twelve during 2014-15, an era when West was double jobbing and making his Super Rugby way with the Blues.
“I loved playing for the Magpies,” said West to RugbyPass following the completion of another day’s training with La Rochelle by the Bay of Biscay. “It’s where I grew up, the team I loved watching. My parents always took me to the games and it was always a team I wanted to be a part of. To play a number of seasons with them, to be part of some special teams that won some trophies, was awesome and it’s a team I hold really close to me.
? Here are the highlights of the Magpies' #RanfurlyShield win over Waikato! Some beautiful tries scored tonight! ?#BAYvWAI #RaketeStones50th #birdgang ? https://t.co/BYELKz9zGe
— Hawke's Bay Magpies (@Magpies_Unoff) October 23, 2021
“There were 40-odd years where we hadn’t won it [the Ranfurly] and to bring it home was an awesome few days, probably too good as we lost it the next week and were just as disappointed as we were happy the week before. But we were lucky enough to win it the year after and hold it a bit longer. The Ranfurly Shield is a special thing for Hawke’s Bay and it is great that it still holds a big part in New Zealand rugby.”
Pandemic restrictions have prevented the La Rochelle-based West from visiting home since he was last there in February 2019 but that distance has only made the heart grow fonder. “Like most people in New Zealand you pick up a rugby ball before you can walk. I started playing when I was five at the Havelock North rugby club, down there on Saturday mornings.
“You weren’t allowed to wear boots so every Saturday morning the grass was freezing, frosted over, and you were running around in your bare feet freezing and asking your mum, ‘Can I put my shoes on?’ But that is where it started for me and I have been in love with it ever since.”
Along the way, there were exotic Maori All Blacks tours to North America and Japan, as well as that incredible 2017 night at a packed Eden Park when he led the Blues in their haka before scoring the winning try to slay the travelling Lions. His Maori culture remains strong. “It’s very important to me,” he enthused.
“We grew up around it. My mother is the principal of an all-Maori girls school so she is very much into all things Maori culture and pushing for a better life for our people. It’s very big in my family and for me as well. Being away from home and being away from it has been tough but every time I get on the phone with mum and dad, it creeps back then. It’s definitely a big part of my life.
“We [West and wife Dannielle] haven’t been home since February 2019. It’s almost three years and it’s tough. Technology makes it a little bit easier but yeah, tough not being able to see family in person,” he said before revisiting some old rugby memories. “Maori All Blacks were another awesome team I always wanted to be a part of. We went to some pretty cool places, experienced different cultures and play some international teams. It was awesome for my development.
“And the Blues, we had a couple of pretty hard years leading up to that Lions game. Tana (Umaga) brought in the haka and to be able to do that and then to win against the Lions was just amazing. I came on in the last 20 or 30 minutes and the Lions were making it tough for us. Then Steven Luatua and Sonny Bill (Williams) did something pretty special. When Sonny has got the ball you just work as hard as your can to get off his shoulder. That was what I did and it worked out well.”
Having generated headlines around the rugby world with that game-clincher, West switched franchises rather than immediately embark on a European adventure at La Rochelle. “I went to the Hurricanes for that one year because we weren’t quite ready to go. It was something different in Wellington, but I wouldn’t change the decision we made (leaving New Zealand in 2018). I have loved my time in France.
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“Growing up in New Zealand you don’t really hear too much (of French rugby) other than the likes of Toulouse or Toulon – we were growing up with the likes of Jonny Wilkinson – and Clermont. The big clubs are what you only really hear of or see on TV back home. I didn’t really know too much about La Rochelle as a club and as a town.
“They came after me before and we had a good chat. My wife and I and my parents talked about it quite a lot and thought we wanted to stay in New Zealand, so I thought that ship had sailed but the next year they were still interested, so it was time to experience a new life, experience the other side of the world and get out of our comfort zone. It was great that La Rochelle were still interested, still believed in me to come over that next season after.
“The city is pretty similar to Napier and Hastings, similar size, has a port, has nice beaches and good weather. But then when you talk about rugby it is crazy, everyone is behind the team and you can see by the massive crowds we get, the stadium is full and it’s just awesome to play in front of that.
“It’s something we don’t really get back home in New Zealand. You don’t get crowds that are cheering the whole 80 minutes and full every week. It’s definitely something that I love being over here in La Rochelle. I probably could be further advanced than where I am (speaking French). I’m a little bit lazy sometimes, but I understand most of what is being said and can hold my own as well at meetings and on the field.”
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How last season finished, though, left West speechless as La Rochelle were beaten in both the Champions Cup and Top 14 finals by Toulouse and his kicking featured heavily in the post-mortem. He hasn’t had much chance to exorcise his demons as a soft tissue injury meant that Sunday night’s clash at home to Toulon was just his second appearance this season (West went on to score 24 of his team’s points – including two tries – in their dominant 39-6 win).
“These are the really frustrating ones. After a week or so you can pretty much do everything but the kicking was no good. That was the main thing. I could run and do all that stuff but it was just the kicking motion that was niggling and holding me back. I have had it before but not this bad. It’s probably about managing my load throughout the week and doing everything I can before and after sessions to make sure I’m putting my body in the best condition possible.
“You have got to embrace it [the pressure of kicking]. One week you can kick all your goals and score a number of points and the next you can miss some and lose and these are the things people pick out. They see that it goes into losing a game, which is 100 per cent right. It was a tough couple of weeks after the finals personally but you have to get back on the horse and trust the work put in.
“I’m not obsessive. I can have a terrible day at training where nothing is working, but I’m able to cut it and go, ‘No, that is enough for the day. I can come back tomorrow and be better’. For me, I just need to be consistent each week with my prep and it will put me in the right headspace for the weekend.”
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La Rochelle endured a weird start to 2021/22, losing four of their first five games with Ronan O’Gara now in full charge after Jono Gibbes left for Clermont. Fortunes have since improved with a pair of successive wins, enough to climb to seventh before this weekend’s round eight clash with Toulon, but it required tough-talking for that improvement to materialise.
“Last year we didn’t lose this many games in a short period so the honest review had to come. Last year we only lost the odd game here and there and didn’t have to look as hard at ourselves as we did after losing four out of five early in this season. Ronan had to be hard and direct with us because we weren’t getting the results.
“He was very strong, very direct with the messages he was giving, the pictures he showed… It’s awesome having him in charge. You have to respect what he has done as a player and also as a coach, he has been around the whole world coaching. He has a lot of good ideas, instils a lot of confidence in you as an individual and as a player, so it’s awesome having him in charge.
“You definitely know he is the boss and it is his way or the highway. He has definitely taken control of the team but last year he was the boss of our attack and how we wanted to play etc, so it’s the same this year but you know he is the top dog now. We have good conversations, not only about rugby but about everything, the journey and life. Being able to talk to someone who has been and done it as a player, been part of big games and won big games, it is awesome to pick his brain whenever I can.”
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For how much longer is open to speculation, though. West was linked at the start of 2021 with a move away at the end of his initial three-year La Rochelle deal but he eventually signed a twelve-month extension taking him through to July 2022. After that, who knows?
“My wife and I love life in France and it is where we want to stay and have a number of more seasons. Whether that is in La Rochelle or elsewhere, we can hopefully have that sorted in the next few months… I just love how close everything is. You can travel. Being in New Zealand you are isolated.
“The closest place is Australia and that is still a three-hour flight whereas here in France, there are places you can go. An hour’s flight and you’re in London or an hour-and-a-half and you’re in Spain, so the travel is awesome. And just the way people are over here is awesome too. It took a bit of getting used to but once you get the gist of how they love aperitifs in the night and things like that, it’s just a good culture to be a part of.”
?? Et on termine avec Ihaia West qui, de retour de blessure, est impatient de retrouver Deflandre et ses supporters… ?? pic.twitter.com/KW3Kiymc5v
— Stade Rochelais (@staderochelais) October 22, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Getting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
52 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
9 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
17 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
9 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
9 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
1 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
1 Go to commentsThe manipulative and cynical Erasmus….
9 Go to commentsWe see you World Rugby….we see you🤡😏
52 Go to commentsBoks are lucky to have a player of the calibre of PSDT in their ranks😍
7 Go to commentsI really like what the boks have done with bringing Vermeulen into their coaching setup. Perhaps they would have gone to france anyway, but Lawes and Farrell could at least have been offered assistant coaching roles. Lawes could probably aptly fill the brief (breakdown, contact skills, and handling) just given to Strawbridge; and Farrell could be a pretty good like for like replacement for Sinfield when he leaves. I probably wouldn’t want them in the national team set up just yet, but it would be good to see strings pulled to either get May, Youngs, Cole, & Care player-coaching roles in the premiership, or to move them into the under 20s coaching staff.
2 Go to commentsSo spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
52 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
154 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
38 Go to commentsGoode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
154 Go to commentsOne would hope when a player of such caliber is approached for transfer is traversed a lot more carefully. The question I ask, “is the players agent raising red flags in the first instance of contact”. By what I read assumptions are made by nzr based on player welfare provided to them. So what is that? Is it a wholistic approach where family balance is taken into account. Because thay’s what’s in the mix when players go off shore. I realize the money is a huge factor but when negotiations are initiated is nzr involved. As Lendrum says having our best players available is paramount to our success So here’s hoping they are effectively communicating.
4 Go to commentsPSTD, I salute you.
7 Go to commentsWhy don't they just give up on scrums and lineouts, cut the number of players to 13, and call the game ‘rugby league’? These idiots are determined to destroy the game as we know it, and instead of ‘attracting youngsters to the game’ as Beaumont suggests, it’ll deter a lot of the less skilled, maybe overweight kids who it is perfect for. World Rugby is detestable. And as for the 20 minute ‘red’ - why not teach the players to tackle better? (Like the current tackle height trials are supposed to do, but will probably be squashed by the NZRU as usual). I despair for the union game, I really do.
52 Go to commentsHere’s hoping the emphasis on how the tmo interfaces on game infractions is taken into account more seriously than what was adjudicated during the 23 wc. That was a shambles, plus Barnes the abs ref never contested some of the calls, something he’s known for. And then we're left with wr opologizing after the game that smith’s try was legit. I was even more pizzed. And as for the red card if the infringement is clearly intentional foul then the individual is out of the game and after 20mins the bench replacement comes on. So, there’s then the degree of seriousness taken into account within the 20min stand down.
38 Go to comments