Rugby World Cup: Chucked in at the deep end ... and facing a rampant Jonah

All Black Jonah Lomu charges through the Scots in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Photo / Archive

If you think Sam Burgess is doing it tough at the World Cup, spare a thought for fellow former league convert Nick Zisti.

A member of St George's 1996 grand final line-up, Zisti is the only player to have made his professional rugby debut at a World Cup.

At Twickenham for Italy against Jonny Wilkinson's England at the 1999 tournament no less.

"I felt like I was running around like a headless chook. I didn't know what I was doing," Zisti said as he recalled his incredible tale from 16 years ago.

Zisti was playing on the wing for Italy and the 67-7 loss was just the start of his baptism by fire.

In his next game he came up against the All Blacks and Jonah Lomu.

"Unbelievable," he said. "They just killed us. They put 100 points on us.

"I saved a couple of tries. I remember I tackled Jonah once."

Zisti empathises with Burgess, the South Sydney grand final hero dropped this week for England's final match against Uruguay, a scapegoat for the hosts' embarrassing elimination before the knockout stages.

But his own introduction to the 15-man game was even more of a whirlwind.

After scoring 19 tries in 18 games for the Dragons from 1994-96, then being the Hunter Mariners' highest pointscorer in their only season in 1997 and finishing his NRL career at Cronulla, Zisti joined the Bradford Bulls in the English Super League.

But just a few games into his three-year deal, he received a note asking him to call the Italian Rugby Union, which needed players for its impending entry to the Six Nations.

"They flew me over from Leeds to Rome - hush hush - on our day off and I was pretty much sold from the moment I arrived at the airport," said Zisti, who qualified through his Italian grandfather Nicola.

Bulls coach Matt Elliott granted Zisti a release in March 1999 and he went into World Cup camp, then into Italy's probables side against the possibles.

Then smack bang into England at Twickenham.

"It was surreal," he said. "I think they thought because I was physically stronger coming from league, and that I'd played in big games, but they never saw a tape of me before I went there.

"It was massive news in Italy ... most of the articles were saying: where does this guy come from?

"It was like I was an alien from outer space who was just flown into the Italian national team."

After struggling with injury and losing his place in the test team, Zisti regained it after bagging a 90m try in Rugby Roma's big win over the Michael Cheika-coached high flyers from Padova.

As fate would have it, he returned for the Six Nations clash with England, where he did enough to retain his place for one last test against France.

Two weeks later, Zisti broke his leg as Rugby Roma went on to win their first Super 10 title in years before going broke.

- AAP