Anesi has inside running

It was one of those roll-off-the-seat-laughing moments, unless you happened to be a hardcore Blues fan.

Mils Muliaina's hopeful long floated throw-in was a millisecond from reaching Joe Rokocoko's arms when from the corner of the screen came a red, yellow and black flash.

Sosene Anesi grabbed the ball and was gone. Try for the Chiefs, end of the night for the Blues.

"I was going up to make sure the ball didn't get to Joe," the Samoan-born flyer said.

"I was going to make the tackle but when I saw the pass floating up I thought, 'I can get that', so I just went for it."

A bit like being given a chance at fullback as the Chiefs did a rejig for last week's game against the Hurricanes.

He went for it and was perhaps the most impressive Chief that night, carving up vast chunks of territory thanks to the pace which earned him the Samoan national 100m record a few years ago and has him marked as one of this country's quickest backs.

Coach Ian Foster, without experienced Adrian Cashmore for the night, opted for a Pacific Islands back three of the returning Sitiveni Sivivatu and Sailosi Tagicakibau on the wings and Anesi at the back.

He's not a total stranger to the position, having played there for his Hamilton Marist club and the odd Waikato game as well. Given a choice he reckons he'd plump for the wing right now, simply because of familiarity.

"I played most of the NPC last year on the wing and my confidence was huge. I am more familiar with what you need on the wing at the moment."

Foster had planned to switch Sivivatu and Anesi after 15 minutes against the Hurricanes. The idea was to ease Sivivatu back in after several months out with a shoulder injury in his more familiar role. But it was working well so he left it like that.

Foster reckoned he spent more time working with the back three in the week leading up to the Hurricanes than he had in the previous year.

"But they seemed to have it all under control by themselves. They seemed relaxed, so we've got something pretty solid to progress with."

Anesi acknowledged having his two mates helping out in covering roles gave him more confidence in the job.

His liking for the wing is understandable. Last year he rattled on nine tries in the NPC in 11 games en route to the semifinals.

He used his speed to good effect to score against the Waratahs in his debut Super 12 appearance this season in Sydney before his thief-in-the-night job on the Blues to help set up the Chiefs' only win so far this season.

"I'm pretty happy with my game at the moment. I've still got a bit of stuff I need to work on, like my defence.

"But I've got my speed and fitness so it's a matter of using it, and I'm getting coaching from the staff and encouragement from the boys."

The fifth child of a family of seven - four brothers and two sisters spread between Samoa, Auckland and London - Anesi came to New Zealand in 2000 as part of a rugby scholarship arrangement between St Joseph's College in Apia and St John's College in Hamilton.

He'd played sevens for Samoa in 1999 and 2000, the year he made the Waikato secondary schools side - and won a Waikato schools tennis title.

Tennis is now on the back burner and the All Blacks are, not surprisingly, the big goal.

Anesi is certainly not the finished article, but the raw ability is there. And that speed.

Throw in Sivivatu and Tagicakibau and it is potentially a thrilling combination.

Anesi said they do some sprint training on days off.

"We do heaps of speed games, running round with the ball trying to outsprint the other fast guys in team."

So who is the fastest? Hmmm. Not sure.

Would he fancy his chances in a foot race against his fellow quicks? A laugh, then: "Yeah, sort of."

It would be worth watching.