Oliver’s story takes a major twist in Oxford

ANTON OLIVER will not learn a more important life lesson during his Masters degree at Oxford University than the realisation which struck him early in a turbulent season with French side Toulon.

The former New Zealand hooker was earning in excess of £200,000 a year and he helped Toulon win promotion to the Top 14, with the promise of glamour fixtures against the likes of Stade Francais and Toulouse to come.

On the day Oliver was named in the Oxford side for today’s Nomura Varsity Match, he reflected on a journey that took him from the pain of a World Cup quarter-final defeat via the “madness of Toulon” to facing Cambridge at Twickenham.

“I had just come from the World Cup. We went home, faced the music – and then I came back to Europe. The whole World Cup-All Black experience was still quite raw,” he recalled.

“The first time I had to put on the Toulon jersey was quite a jarring experience. The jersey is a big thing; they are your colours, and it was foreign to me.

“After about five or six weeks, I realised my rugby raison d’etre was to play for my country. Only once I was out of that context, and that possibility had been extinguished, I thought: ‘What am I doing here?’ I can’t play for money.

Oliver saw out the remainder of the season but was actively looking for an escape route – “when you know you are doing it for the wrong reasons, I just couldn’t do it any more”.

Environment issues have long been a passion, and he applied to study biodiversity conservation and management at both Cambridge and Oxford.

“The other lot” rejected him. But the call came from Oxford.

“I have a little room with a little single bed and bike that takes me everywhere,” said Oliver, who played at the University of Otago before making his All Blacks debut as a 21-year-old.