Fatherhood, they say, is like shaving. No matter how close you go to the jaw line with the most-hyped razor you always have to do it all over again the next day.
That analogy isn't lost on Otago player TJ (Tala James) Ioane who is beginning to appreciate that since his partner, Maua Ah-Chong, gave birth to their son, Lachlan, a month ago.
"It's [fatherhood] a responsibility you have to deal with when you have a kid and getting the balance right," the 22-year-old explosive flanker said yesterday soon after the southerners arrived here from Auckland following a delayed flight via Wellington due to mechanical problems with the aircraft in the Big Smoke.
While Ioane comes off the bench sporting the No 19 jersey and conspicuous in his budding Radike Samo-like affro, the Samoa-born player from Wellington had a huge impact in their emphatic victory over Auckland on Wednesday night at Eden Park in the crossover ITM Cup match as Championship side Otago upset their Premiership rivals 32-25.
Not only did it totally remove the scab off a festering 35-year-old wound of not winning on the Aucks' patch, but the blue and gold unit wrenched the Lin Colling Memorial Trophy out of the hosts' hands for their maiden bragging rights since its inception in 2005.
In doing so, the Eben Jourbert-captained side have claimed the top rung of the Championship (division two) ladder.
The Hawke's Bay Magpies will be mindful of that at 2.35pm on Sunday at McLean Park, Napier, when they host a resurgent Otago, who have endured numerous setbacks in the past few years as rugby undergoes a renaissance in the Deep South with the construction of a covered stadium for the impending Rugby World Cup kicking off in six weeks.
More importantly, Magpies co-coaches Peter Russell and Tom Coventry will have worn out the remote control replay and pause buttons on videotape to counter Ioane's penchant for gathering steam from almost a standstill position to break four tackles once he's had a sniff of the try line.
Humble in his self-assessment, a softly spoken Ioane gracefully accepted appraisal of his bullocking runs but, in the fashion of the shaving analogy, reiterated the need to start all over again game after game in a crammed season with short turnarounds because of the World Cup.
His co-coaches, Phil Mooney and Andy Hunter, want him to focus on his core role to help the two-time national provincial championship winners (1991, 1998) back into the upper echelons of the country's premier national rugby competition.
Otago finished bottom last winter with just two wins from 13 games in the 14-team ITM Cup, failing like the Magpies to make it into the this season's abbreviated Premiership grade.
Turning his tacklers into crash-test dummies with his 1.82m frame at 105kg, Ioane understandably is working hard to make the starting XV for his adopted province on debut after coming off the bench twice with aplomb.
"I'm happy [with whatever he has to do for the team] but that's [starting XV] where you want to be when you make it for your province," he said.
Australian Mooney, in his second season at the helm of Otago, said the compressed season meant they would rotate players although "TJ will be starting pretty soon".
The Brisbanite said the Magpies players were dangerous because of their ability to counter-attack from broken play and out wide.
"We've got the ability to play with the ball in hand too and ... our players are capable too," Mooney said before the team headed off to Ocean Spa along Marine Parade for a recovery session mid-afternoon.
"Hawke's Bay is a positive team and like to play a width game so it should be a good spectacle," he predicted, revealing former Magpie midfielder Sam Giddens and Bay flanker Gareth Evans, the younger brother of ex-All Black and Magpie Bryn Evans, were on their debut season for Otago.
Evans, 19, an Otago University student, was "very good" in his first two games while Giddens was "fitting in well" too in both appearances.
Flanker Regan Tamihere, who performed an eye-watering splits during a ruck in the Auckland match, is the only player out of the Otago equation after pulling a hamstring.
Ioane moved with his family - father Faiogasa, a postmaster, mother Fualaau, two elder sisters and a younger brother - to Wellington from Apia in 1997 when he was 8 years old.
"It was an opportunity for my parents to improve our lifestyle and give us a chance to educate ourselves," he said, revealing the move wasn't easy considering they got homesick and still have relatives and friends living in the South Pacific island nation.
The then Wellington College pupil started playing rugby league for Harbour City in the capital but his high school soon impressed on him the importance of giving something back to the institution by playing a sport it offered.
"They didn't have rugby league so I made the most of it playing rugby," Ioane said, adding the transition to the XV-man code was smooth.
While he hadn't "kept my head down" in school as his parents desired, he was turning heads as a Hurricanes and New Zealand Secondary Schools representative at the age of 18.
Things looked promising for the part-time residential building worker when the Wellington Rugby Union picked him for their academy for two seasons but a player-rich Lions squad meant Ioane didn't get much game time.
"They had a strong base of loose forwards so my agent [Dave Monery, of Wellington] said 'go to Dunedin'," he said, reconciling freezing winters with getting more game time to further a promising career.
"When you play at that level you must make the most of your opportunities," Ioane explained, seeing the irony of again leaving his friends and family in the capital to start a new chapter in life with an infant nuclear family.
"Islanders are family orientated so you don't have much time for that now," said the man who is incidentally the first cousin of Reds speedster Digby Ioane.
While he doesn't have any contact with the camera-loving Wallaby winger, Ioane hopes to meet him some day.
"I just know him as someone who's part of the family but meeting him will be a good buzz for me."
In the back of his mind is Samoa's upset victory last weekend against Australia, igniting the flame of desire to represent his country of birth internationally.
"I'm eligible to play for Samoa but whatever happens, happens."
Should he find himself under the Super Rugby selectors' radar, Ioane doesn't harbour any preferences on who he would like to play for.
"To be honest, I'm not fussed which franchise I play for," he said.
"The ITM Cup is a stepping stone to potentially where you want to be by making your mark and doing what you do best."
For now, Ioane's heart is in the hinterlands and unwavering in his commitment to help Otago capture the glory days.
On the foundation of oodles of self-belief and words of wisdom from seasoned campaigners such as Kees Meeuws and Tony Brown, Ioane is carving out a niche in an unforgiving professional environment where a bullish outlook can become a bearish one in the blink of an eye.
With almost child-like innocence, he said: "I watched Tony Brown and Kees Meeuws on TV as a kid so to be playing alongside them now is quite a humbling experience for me."
TEAMS:
Hawke's Bay Magpies: Richard Buckman, Tu Umaga-Marshall, Star Timu, Andrew Horrell, Sinoti Sinoti, Daniel Kirkpatrick, Kahn Fotuali'i, Michael Coman (captain), Karl Lowe, Trent Boswell-Wakefield, Bryn Evans, Kane Thompson, Anthony Perenise, Hika Elliot, Sona Taumalolo.
Reserves: Danny Logan, Hikairo Forbes, Brodie Retallick, Adam Bradey, Chris Eaton, Ryan McLeod, Gillies Kaka, Logovi'i Mulipolo.
Otago: Glenn Dickson, Joe Hill, Ben Atiga, Sam Giddens, Buxton Popoali'i, Hayden Parker,
Sean Romans, Gareth Evans, Eben Joubert (captain), Adam Hill, Tom Donnelly, Rob Verbakel, James McGougan, Liam Coltman, Halani Aulika.
Reserves: Peter Mirrielees, Kees Meeuws, Scott Manson, Daniel Ramsay, TJ
Ioane, Johnny Legg, Tony Brown, Jayden Spence.
