Rugby: Radike's new lease of life

Reds forward Radike Samo has been earmarked by his coach to have a big impact on the latter half of the season. Photo / Getty Images

At age 34, after two seasons in France and another three in Japan, Fijian journeyman Radike Samo hasn't missed a beat in a remarkable return to Super rugby.

But Queensland coach Ewen McKenzie believes there's much better to come from the powerful former Wallabies forward who first made his name with one-handed ball carries for the Brumbies a decade ago.

Samo is enjoying an eye-catching second coming in Australia for the Reds just a year after his career appeared over and he can't wait for another crack at the NSW Waratahs on Saturday night.

The raw-boned back-rower returned home from an almost-anonymous three-year stint with Yokohama in 2010 to play in the Sydney club competition before a second-row injury crisis thrust him straight into the young Reds pack for the final two Super 14 rounds.

He made an immediate impact - not that it was as simple as it looked.

"I was really surprised," Samo told AAP. "Coming back from Japan footy, it was such a different pace.

"It's hard and I thought 'Shit! I forgot about it, the pace is so quick'."

But apart from a wild afro, the former Fiji Under-19 looked just as big and fit as the Samo who played in two grand final wins with the Brumbies in 2001 and 2004 before earning six Tests for Australia.

The intensity of those late-season matches against the Hurricanes and Highlanders did ensure he put in a massive 2011 pre-season, which led to McKenzie rating him among his hardest trainers.

It was that work, along with Samo's natural attacking skills, which has the Reds coach tipping a barnstorming second half to the 2011 competition.

"I don't think we've seen the best of him yet," McKenzie told AAP. "He was in great form in the trials and then got a hand injury and that stuffed him for five or six weeks.

"Last week (against the Bulls) he was a little bit off because he was the one guy who struggled with jet-lag (from South Africa) ... but we would expect to see him at full tilt this week.

"The more he plays the better he's going to go. He makes things happen."

Like another former Brumby, Mark Gerrard for the Melbourne Rebels, Samo has proven that Wallabies can enjoy a late-career pay day in Japan and then return for a successful second shot at home.

"We've seen that Japan doesn't have to be a graveyard," said McKenzie.

McKenzie was the assistant coach to Eddie Jones when Samo joined the Brumbies as a shy youngster in 1999 and then took time to emerge from behind the likes of David Giffin, Justin Harrison and Owen Finegan.

"He was very quiet back then," McKenzie said. "I was really pleased when I met with him (last year) ... he was far more verbose about the game and he's become more worldly.

"I was impressed and it was a no-brainer to have him come on board.

"The Brumbies were very detailed. (The Reds game) suits his style - we're organised but we don't get bogged down in structure.

"If he sees an opportunity he takes it and he's powerful enough to do something about it."

Samo remains the only Australian currently playing Super Rugby to have played in those two successful grand finals, while he also came off the bench to score a match-winning try for Stade Francais in the 2007 French championship final.

He believes the table-topping Reds are good enough to go all the way in 2011, but they have few similarities to his former team in Canberra.

Whereas the George Gregan-led Brumbies were full of experience, most of the Reds are more than 10 years younger than him.

"Up here, it's different, it's a young squad and everyone gets along and it's easy - everyone does the same," he said.

"At the Brumbies I was the youngest and a lot of the guys were quite old."

But one thing Samo's new side shares with his old is their regard of bitter-rivals NSW.

"When I played at the Brumbies it was always a big game for us," he said. "We really hated the Waratahs and when we played them every time we played it was like there was going to be a fight.

"We were always pumped up and wanted to smash them."

- AAP