It is with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that World Cup winner Piri Weepu is tackling the latest chapter in his storied career.
Tomorrow, on his 31st birthday, the New Zealander will get his first taste of Aviva Premiership rugby as London Welsh take on Exeter Chiefs at the Kassam Stadium.
The Oxfordshire countryside, and the target of survival with Welsh, could not be further from what the scrum-half is used to following a decade playing in Super Rugby, that saw him pick up 71 caps for the All Blacks. Weepu led his country’s fabled pre-game Haka on many of those occasions, and played a ‘Mr Fix-it’ role as they lifted the Webb Ellis Cup nearly three years ago.
Yet, having suffered a minor stroke in March, he was faced with an uncertain future when his contract with the Auckland Blues expired in the summer. Enter London Welsh, and an ambitious offer from their coach, Justin Burnell, during a trip to Singapore.
“It was an opportunity that was given to me so I’m just trying to make the most of it,” Weepu says. “I’ve been playing Super Rugby for the last 11 seasons so I thought it would be good to try the Premiership out and London Welsh gave me the opportunity.
“Basically they were the only option on the table at the time. After the stroke everything went a bit downhill in terms of opportunities, so I was very fortunate when Justin approached me.”
The former All Black says he is still trying to get his head around London’s tube map as he shares a flat with fellow Welsh newboy, Lachlan McCaffrey, in Richmond.
He is keen to visit his good friend, the former New Zealand prop, Neemia Tialata, in France and also has friends in Huddersfield, and family in Wales.
“It’s scary at the same time as exciting,” he adds of his new adventure. “Exciting because it’s a different country and you can do so much here, but scary because you don’t know what you’re doing or how to get to certain places. But other than that I’m pretty excited to be here and go look around.”
Weepu admits that he had less than 48 hours to make the decision to make the move to the other side of the world, to become one of 25 new signings made by the promoted club. With a young family at home, was it tough to leave?
“Yeah it definitely was, I guess the hardest part was leaving my family, my three kids, behind,” he reveals. “I guess for me it was just why not take this last opportunity to come over here, get a taste of the Premiership and see what can happen from being here?”
For Welsh, the hope is their marquee addition, alongside Olly Barkley, can inspire them to enough wins to keep them in the top flight for the second year of his contract. Weepu insists that although he now takes Aspirin daily, there are no other lasting complications from his stroke, and says it was never going to be enough to stop him playing.
“I was very lucky to have a great medical staff around me with the Blues,” he explains. “Our team doctor made everything happen just like that and then I was basically in for surgery.
“Just before that, we talked about strokes and the recovery side of things, I just basically said to him ‘how long [until] I get back onto the pitch after the operation?’ He said: ‘No, you’ll be probably two weeks at most’, so there was no doubt in me.”
He adds: “I never thought about not coming back onto the pitch. If footy’s your life then you do anything possible.”
Although Weepu acknowledges that he has been lucky compared to players who suffer neck injuries, or other serious ailments, he does reveal it was difficult to tell his mother, and team-mates including All Blacks centre Ma’a Nonu, about his illness.
“Telling my mum,” he replies when asked what was toughest. “Then telling my team-mates but having one of my very close mates (Nonu) being in the room at the same time, that was quite difficult.
“I’m not going to lie, I cried. I cried in front of my team-mates because it was kind of scary and hard to swallow, to tell the whole squad. You just try to be as positive as you can, and hope for the best. I hoped for the best, and it worked out.”
That positivity can only be a good thing as Welsh begin the long slog towards survival.
And the man himself believes a bit more of it could be used by the media towards his former international colleagues, the All Blacks.
Following their opening Rugby Championship 12-12 draw with Australia, there were calls in some quarters for senior members of the squad, including captain Richie McCaw, and inspirational No10, Dan Carter, to step aside.
The critics were quelled somewhat by a 51- 20 demolition of the Wallabies a week later, and Weepu is certain the likes of McCaw, Carter and Conrad Smith will still be around to lead the team into next year’s World Cup.
“What they don’t understand is that you have to adapt to the conditions, and sometimes you do that and it doesn’t work out for you,” he says.
“Everyone seems to be happy about the result in the second Test. The media seem to be happy about it.
“But, I guess it’s just anything you can find to twist the arm, that’s what sells papers or sells news, so they’ve got to do everything possible for that to happen. I don’t really read into it.”
Weepu adds: “Richie McCaw puts his body on the line week in and week out, there’s always something wrong with him and he always battles through it and always comes up trumps.
“Conrad is probably one of the fittest guys in the team. I guess DC, now he’s in his 30s, it seems that things don’t seem to be happening for him, but I mean if you look at the type of person that he is, his skill set and what he can do, he’s still got the goods, so I definitely see them being around at World Cup time.”
