KEY POINTS:
When Lelia Masaga was a kid growing up in Porirua, his father would encourage him to play harder by waving $5 notes from the sidelines.
These days, Counties Manukau's standout wing plays for higher stakes.
But the 20-year-old flier's fledgling rugby career almost never happened.
His father, Fipoi,
passed away when Masaga was 12 and one of the game's hottest young talents simply walked away.
For seven years, Masaga seldom went near a rugby field.
"I never used to play with a rugby ball," he says. "I drifted away. I was into volleyball and basketball - round balls interested me more than oval ones."
But that changed in his seventh form year at James Cook High in Manurewa, where he had moved to as a teenager. With his school years coming to an end, Masaga weighed up his job prospects.
"I didn't want to be working in an office or some sort of factory. My year in the first XV was pretty good so I thought I'd try and play Super rugby."
Nicknamed Flash, Masaga has a guileless way of making such a statement sound routine, as if just anyone could have a crack at professional rugby.
"I just thought a bit of speed and a bit of gym work and it might be rugby."
He describes last Friday's wonder-try against North Harbour in the same matter-of-fact manner.
"I guess I was a bit desperate for the ball. It was probably going to be the last scrum we had so I just told the halfback, 'Pass me the ball and I'll score a try'."
Counties aren't overly blessed with players who can back up their words like that. Their coach, Kevin Putt, says the team needs to be wary that it doesn't adopt a plan that simply revolves around getting the ball to Masaga to see what he can do.
"He is a real strike force, lots of X-factor and hungry for the ball," Putt says. "The real test is balancing it up so it doesn't become the only weapon that you have got."
The fact that Masaga is by far and away Counties' most dangerous weapon isn't lost on their opponents. These days, Flash is a marked man.
"It's not that surprising he is perceived to be a threat - he is a threat," says Putt, who believes Masaga is destined for the very top.
"I am absolutely convinced he can and he will [make the All Blacks]. He continues to learn and he certainly listens. A lot of the feedback I've had from [Chiefs coach] Ian Foster is very positive and I'm just trying to make sure he continues in that vein while he's with us."
Masaga might be destined for the big time but he sure doesn't sound like a guy who knows it.
"Watching Super 14 on TV and then getting to play [it] was pretty exciting for me," he says of his breakthrough season with the Chiefs.
"I thought if I could dot down a few tries it would give me a good name."
He did - and it did.
His New Zealand-best eight tries in that tournament and his obvious class at national championship level suggest the 20-year-old will have plenty of people waving bank notes at him in the future - just like in his early days.
"Whenever I was lazing when I was a little kid I would look at the sideline and my dad would be holding a five dollar note for me if I got a try."
When he returned to the game after his seven-year break, it was former Counties standout Loki Crichton who provided the inspiration for the star-struck Masaga to push on.
"I met a famous guy who sort of drove me towards it," he says of Crichton.
"He just told me to train hard and if I really loved rugby I'd get somewhere."
If getting somewhere to Masaga means earning a good living off the game, it's no surprise. Immigrant Samoan one-parent families aren't exactly overly represented in the more affluent reaches of society.
"I'm actually trying to do it for my family so we can have a better life."
"My main goal now is to try to make the All Blacks. I've just got to keep performing."
