All Blacks: Tialata will show French a fresh face

A newly fit Neemia Tialata gives Mils Muliaina a lift in training in Marseille. Photo / Getty Images

The French may well unleash hell tomorrow morning, but it's unlikely to stop Neemia Tialata from smiling.

The All Black prop has reached a place of contentment; he's in a head space that cannot be upset by events in Marseille. It's a privileged place to be and he knows it. And he knows it because earlier this year he was at rock bottom.

Tialata's performances in South Africa were not close to the expected standard and when he returned he was told as much by the coaches in terms that didn't spare his feelings.

"I'd played a few tests and was feeling a bit comfortable," says Tialata of that period. "Not knowing what the young fella was like as well - [Owen Franks] coming through. He played well and he deserved his start. I went away and worked on a lot of things.

"I am one of the luckiest ones. Obviously I can cover both sides, but I have been given a few chances and it is not going to happen again."

Tialata says that with the conviction of a man who knows there are no more chances. All his special cards have been played and if he slips back into his bad old ways, if his fitness deserts him, then he knows that will be it.

What enabled him to work his way back into the side was his realisation that he didn't want to lose his black jersey. He hated the thought that at 27 he might be washed up.

So he intensified his training, trying different activities to shed the kilos and get himself right. By September he'd convinced the coaching panel he was both fit enough and hungry enough to be given another go.

"It's all down to him," said Graham Henry of Tialata. "He's in the best shape he's ever been in and he's playing the best rugby he ever has.

"He's got control over things and we have shown him a little love. Everyone enjoys a little love being shown and the challenge for him is to keep it up and to keep improving."

Tomorrow's clash is the perfect opportunity for Tialata to prove he's still improving and still determined to fulfil his potential. The French don't hold back in the scrums.

Tialata isn't too bothered by that. He has played 40 tests and knows that despite the hype about this game being the most titanic of the season, it is business as usual for him. It's the same old rules as far as he's concerned - if the All Blacks don't win the battle up front and set the platform, then they can forget about it.

The intensity of the battle is what Tialata lives for. His brief period in the wilderness also hammered home just how much he loves playing rugby, the big occasion and all the pressures that come with it.

"I don't know if there was a turning point," he says. "It was more ... enjoying what I'm doing. That has been my attitude after coming back for that Wellington test.

"I started enjoying it and was going well and started feeding off the team."

There has been a bit more to it than that. Having shifted some weight, Tialata has been able to play 80 minutes again which he did in Cardiff and would have done again in Milan had he not been wrongly yellow-carded.

France will target him, will try to unsettle him in the set-piece and try to run him around to sap his energy.

They will find, though, that the Tialata they encountered at the beginning of the season is very different to the one they will face on Sunday.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY