Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'The dream is still alive' - Cancer not stopping Manu from chasing World Cup appearance

Nasi Manu. Photo / Getty Images

Cancer-stricken Tongan loose forward Nasi Manu has revealed his desire to appear at the World Cup in Japan later this year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Six months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer, the three-test international has undergone surgery and chemotherapy in a bid to reignite his stagnant rugby-playing career.

The former Highlanders co-captain, who helped steer the side to its maiden Super Rugby title in 2015, is now contracted to Pro14 side Benetton Treviso after a two-season stint with Edinburgh, although is yet to feature this season.

However, the 30-year-old is back in training, and is raring to play again with an eye firmly focused on representing Tonga at the World Cup.

“I’ve been for a couple of relaxed runs and I daydream about it,” Manu told Rugby World.

“It’ll definitely be emotional, just to be back out playing. But the first thing is being able to train with them fully. I can almost taste it – to run opposition, in training against the first-team guys, while the season is still there.”

Manu was diagnosed on the eve of of Benetton Treviso’s season-opening clash against Dragons after visiting the doctor following a period of feeling as if something wasn’t right.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Once I found out I had cancer, it was never about getting back to the rugby field, it was about my life and being free to live and be a dad for my daughter and husband for my wife,” he said.

“But I really feel like a new man now. I am happy to hurt. I’m training, doing cardio, and it feels good to get back to some normality. I think for a little bit, I took things for granted. Now I know how important it is I make the most of this opportunity.

“Moving to Italy, I really enjoyed it and I did work hard. I felt like I was progressing and then I played on my first test tour with Tonga. I came back and then hit a speed bump,” he said.

“Going through cancer and chemo has been a great sort of awakening for what I really want and my rugby goals, my life goals. I sort of narrowed down what’s important to me.”

ADVERTISEMENT

A full medical check-up beckons for Manu in June, and should he emerge from that without any issues, then he won’t need to see a specialist again until 2020.

The World Cup kicks off just three months after his check-up, and it looms as a motivating driver in Manu’s recovery.

“It’s always been a dream to compete on the world stage, to play in a World Cup,” he said.

“The dream is still alive to maybe achieve that this year.

“My first goal is to be available this season for Benetton … Then the dream is to make the World Cup squad.”

Rugby World Cup City Guides – Oita:

Video Spacer

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

N
Nickers 37 minutes ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

9 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ 'Turnaround Tyrel' epitomises the foggy state of the Bledisloe Cup 'Turnaround Tyrel' epitomises the foggy state of the Bledisloe Cup
Search