These days John Timu has a building business in the Queenstown area but finds time to renew old acquaintances when he attends All Black tests in Dunedin.
Timu was another in what seemed to be a production line of talent from the Hawkes Bay who shifted south to University and graduated to the All Blacks. That was a six year stretch for Timu, until in his prime and on the edge of rugby grasping professionalism in '95, he accepted an offer to play rugby league.
Half a century of All Black matches including 26 tests spread across the back four and he was gone. Timu would have been a sensation on the fast grounds in South Africa for the 1995 World Cup and would have given the All Blacks a shade more experience and thrust from the back.
Who knows. His inclusion might have come at the expense of Jonah Lomu and then what would we have missed.
The 20-year-old Timu was picked to replace an injured John Kirwan on his first All Black tour to Europe in '89 where he was part of a group of young thrusters with Inga Tuigamala and Craig Innes.
