Joe Rokocoko, Jerome Kaino, John Afoa and Stephen Donald. Four All Blacks stars, three World Cup winners and one who missed out is one of the best wingers to have ever played the game.
Not a bad quartet to have in your Under 15s team.
These week on The Hard Yards rugby podcast, we spoke with two rugby stars that came from pretty good schools teams. Brendan Macken was in a Blackrock schools cup team that included Jordi Murphy, Andrew Conway, John Cooney and Dave Heffernan.
Afoa was in with Kaino, Donald and Rokocoko. We know who our money would be on but, in fairness, you’d be doing well if you opted to back the Kiwis in most rugby bets.
Afoa shared some great tales [from 23:30 below] about his time back in New Zealand and gave Ulster fans a taste of what to expect with Stephen ‘The Beaver’ Donald.
“They were good times. We all grew up around the same area, Papakura in South Auckland, and there was another guy we played Under 15s together – Steve Donald, the big man from the 2011 World Cup.
“We all played together them we were all lucky enough – me, Joe and Jerome – to go to the same high school [Saint Kentigern College] and play together for three years.”
While that trio, including Afoa, went on to play for Auckland Blues, Donald became a Chiefs stalwart. All four men would go on to represent the All Blacks while Rokocoko [46 tries in 68 Test appearances] was the unfortunate one to miss out on a World Cup winners’ medal.
Donald was the RWC 2011 hero, kicking his country to their first trophy success in 24 years at Eden Park, in the narrow win over France. Seven and a half years on, he will join Afoa in lining out for Ulster. The prop, now at Gloucester in the Aviva Premiership, commented:
“I was onto Steve the other day and said, ‘Get over here!’ I passed him on some of the [Ulster] boys’ numbers – you’ve got to look after him, make sure he is living in the right area, those sort of things. He’ll enjoy his time at Ulster.
“He’s got the deepest voice you’ve ever met,” Afoa joked. “That’ll freak you out.”
“He’s one of those 10s that doesn’t like to pass the ball so those lads like Darren Cave and Luke Marshall are not going to see much of it for the next three months. He loves the show and go!
“He’s got a decent kick on him but he’ll be good value and I think the fans will enjoy him.”
Christian Lealiifano has definitely left his Mark on the Ulster fans and one hopes Afoa’s words about Donald ring true.
