Hayes’ trip down memory lane

IN many ways, this morning’s date with Southland was the game no British and Irish Lion wanted to be a part of.

Inclusion in this fixture, five days before the first test against New Zealand, means a seat in the stands for the match all 45 players had set their hearts on playing in.

John Hayes, at least, has a crumb of comfort to ease his pain. The 32-year-old Munster and Ireland forward is returning to a place he has fond memories of from his time with the Marist club in Invercargill, and retracing the steps that saw him convert from a lock to a prop.

Hayes made the journey from Co Limerick in 1995 on the recommendation of an ex-pat Kiwi team-mate at Bruff. He liked it so much he went back for another campaign in 1996.

“I enjoyed every single minute of it, never enjoyed any two seasons so much,” Hayes said yesterday on his first afternoon back at Invercargill’s Rugby Park. “It was a huge experience. Everybody was just so brilliant to me and I loved it here.”

Hayes, a welder by trade, was found a job on the maintenance crew in the Slinkskins Tannery and lived with a family in digs. He soon discovered that Southland rugby loved him too when he was handed regional honours with the Southland Colts.

“The first year I was here I was only 21 and I played with the Colts. We beat Otago here once as a curtain-raiser on the morning of an NPC game and it was the first time Southland had beaten Otago in years. It was a great game and they were great times.

“When I came out here, I was a lock and not really heavy enough (for a front row) but over the year I was here I put on a bit of weight and the coach was always on to me - ‘you should be a prop’. He said it to me a few times and I kind of laughed it off but after a while he started getting serious about it and started putting me in there at scrummaging sessions and showing me what to do.

“The first season, I played all lock and started off the second season there but it was only the last few games of that season that I changed over. So I played five or six times as a prop, then went home and continued. I suppose my future was decided for me and I’m not complaining either.”

Nor should he, as the positional switch reaped dividends. Hayes returned to Limerick and was soon playing senior rugby with Shannon, leading to a Munster cap, Ireland, and now coming full circle with the Lions.

“At that time when I did start playing prop, I never thought I’d be coming back here having played for Ireland and playing for the Lions. Things just went from there, but I never thought it would lead to here.”

From an outsider’s point of view Hayes’ one start, against Taranaki on June 8, did not go well as the Lions front row struggled to overcome their provincial counterparts. Hayes was replaced halfway through the second half and opportunities had been limited since as other props have seized their chance. Hayes, though, has valued every minute of his time on tour.

“This has been a completely different experience for me. Ever since the first day, meeting up in Wales to go out to New Zealand, there’s just been an excitement with all the new players, management, everything. The whole thing, just getting to New Zealand and playing a game, has been brilliant and I’m delighted to be playing again against Southland.”

Having played in New Zealand for Ireland in 2002, against a divisional 15 in Timaru and then tests in Dunedin and Auckland, Hayes said he knew what to expect from the forward play in this part of the world. “There are always differences, the referees, different interpretations, but we get that up at home too. The French are different to us. It’s still very good rugby down here though. You play any of the provincial sides and you know what you’re going to get. They are top-class sides and most of the teams have had Super 12 players, professionals, hard and physical. It’s been exactly as we had expected.”

What Hayes didn’t expect to see were newspaper reports that he had had a training ground punch-up with Scottish hooker Gordon Bulloch.

“We clashed heads in a ruck manoeuvre, just cleaning out, and I suppose I was too high; my fault - I should have been low. But we didn’t even bang, just glanced off the side of each other. I couldn’t believe what I read when I came down and saw the papers the next morning.”

He refuted the suggestion that the division of the squad into test and non-test groups has caused resentment in the camp this week. “We trained together Monday morning before we left and everything’s still the same. It continues on the same way. When we get back on Wednesday we’ll train with the boys again and keep the whole thing together.”