It’s not all plain sailing for confident Francis Saili

The 24-year-old centre has left his native New Zealand to join a Munster team that has lost three games in a row, but is optimistic he can help turn things around..

FRANCIS Saili strides into the Castletroy Park hotel and parks his frame in an armchair. His ‘man bun’ hairstyle, which Munster supporters have quickly grown used to seeing bob as energetically as its owner in midfield, is protected under a Carhartt bobble hat and he’s tired after a high-intensity Tuesday training session on an energy-sapping pitch. Yet there’s no hiding the beaming smile.

The 24-year-old is as upbeat a character as you will meet, although there are plenty of reasons for a recently exiled Aucklander not to be on a miserable, grey Limerick afternoon.

The twice-capped All Black is adjusting to life in a strange country and with a new club that has lost its way a little over the last month, twice defeated at Thomond Park in a three-game losing run. It is now facing one of those do-or-die European games, on English soil, where ambitions and legacies can crumble as easily as legends can be made.

All of that would test the character of even the most optimistic of men.

Yet, the former Auckland Blues centre insists a corner has been turned on the training field, and that Munster can put things right at Welford Road tomorrow, when the province seeks revenge for last Saturday’s 31-19 Champions Cup defeat to Leicester.

“It has been testing, I don’t like losing,” Saili said. “We’ve pretty much drawn a line in the sand and said to ourselves ‘we’ve got three losses on the trot and, as a Munster legacy, we don’t want that to carry on’. We just know that we need to get on with our jobs and personal responsibilities, and that’s an important thing for our team, to hold our values and live up to them, because, at the end of the day, it’s only us that can perform out there and get the results for our families, our friends, for the community. We know that the community is behind us and we have to repay them by giving them good results. We’ve trained well and we’ll keep building towards the weekend.”

Since arriving from New Zealand, in August, at the conclusion of the Blues’ Super Rugby campaign, Saili says he has learned that his team-mates are a squad who can back up promises with positive deeds.

“We have the group of players to do it, to find that good balance with our game, and it’s just a question of personal responsibility with our errors. On Saturday, there were quite a few errors, but we’ve put our hands up for them and told ourselves it’s not good enough. Now, there’s the challenge of going to Welford Road and repaying them for what they did to us on our ground.

“We know what to do. We’ll go in with an underdog mindset and we’ll be ruthless about it. This Leicester side is going really well and they’ve got a good influence, with a New Zealand-style of coaching from Aaron Mauger, who’s brought in some good players. Our lads here have worked hard and we can’t wait to rip into it on Sunday. Words can only go so far; it’s only actions that can really speak louder than words.”

The skills deficit behind those errors has been much-discussed, including by Paul O’Connell as an explanation for Ireland’s World Cup failure. Saili is the personification of the former Munster legend’s assertion that “a New Zealander has probably accumulated hundreds, maybe even thousands, more hours of rugby than an Irish kid has”.

Saili agrees emphatically, but says the remedy will require patience.

“It takes time. There’s a big difference between New Zealand and Ireland in terms of that kind of stuff, and, for the boys’ upskilling, it’s a process. It’s not going to happen in a week or two or three. I feel like we’re still trying to push levels, drive it towards an ultimate goal, where we want to be playing a very skilful and expansive game. We’re heading towards that, but there’s only so much I can do. We’re working on it every day and it’s promising.

“Hopefully, we can see a difference in terms of our skill levels in the number of games we have left. I reckon it’s going to build and I feel like we’re building towards it, so I’m just glad that I’m here to see it, because I like to see others better themselves at the same I’m trying to better myself, because it’s going to be flow-and-effect and it benefits the whole team.” Saili hopes to see an end product to that upskilling, before his two-year contract expires, and has pledged to do all he can, whether he stays beyond 2017 or not.

“I’m just trying to come in and bring my own style to the team and try and add to the team as much as I can. I’m one of those guys: I like to challenge my team-mates, I like us to challenge each other, because that’s how you get the best out of your team-mates.

“If there’s something I think is a valid point, I say it, and I should have no fear in saying it, because somebody else might be thinking the same thing. And I like to show, by example, through my actions, so if I can do that, hopefully I can influence others alongside me to follow through. The ultimate goal, for me and the team, is to win silverware and bring back silverware to where it belongs. I feel strongly that Champions Cup and the Pro12 (titles) can be achieved by this club. Personally, my goal is to come out here and become a better rugby player. Whether I go back after two years, or whether I stay, the goal is to keep improving in each and every game and help bring back silverware. We’ve got a good group of boys to do that,” Saili says.

Saili on...

Francis Saili talks about the shock of seeing horses on the streets, Coffee Club craic and looking forward to a Polynesian family Christmas in Limerick.

A new life in Ireland....

It’s been good. It’s nice for me because it’s a new experience. I’ve been here before but not lived here and everyday life is different. It’s the first place I’ve seen people ride horses down the road and that was a shock to me! But it’s all nice and interesting and I like it so far. It helps when all the boys have made the transition easy enough for me. My parents are coming in on Monday for Christmas and it’s going to be nice showing them what it’s like on the other side of the world. They’ll be at the Leinster game, my parents and my little sister so that’s exciting and hopefully my brother (Peter) can come over, he’s playing in France. He left in February (for Bordeaux-Begles), I left in August.

And it’s enjoyable for the most part. I’m not loving the feeling of losing but you learn a lot from that and you can’t win every single game, as much as we’d like it to be. There’s stiff competition out there and I like challenges.

Settling in....

The boys made the transition very easy and I’m very settled here. It’s a small enough community and town that I know the streets and it’s a nice place. I’ve found some nice places to hang out. I go to the cinema, like watching movies or we go over to one of the boys’ houses and chill or go for coffee dates, all the Limerick boys in the Coffee Club, whoever’s available. It’s good fun, we leave rugby at the door and have some good craic. It’s funny to hear the Irish boys talk about their stories. It’s similar enough to back home. Rugby players are the same, it always comes down to the same old stories, some good and some you wouldn’t want to hear. The boys here are just too funny. It’s always a good laugh. A first Christmas away from home...

Normally I’d be in the last of pre-season before a two-week break before going into another block of pre-season. That’s a hard long road for the boys back home but I feel like it’s a long season here and you’re tossing between the two tournaments. But that’s the beauty about it, you just have to be up for every game, treat every game as if it’s a final, as if it’s your last.

What do you miss about home, away from rugby?

My mum’s food, but she’s coming over here to cook, so that’s pretty cool. It will be Polynesian food, island food. There’s taro, which is a root, kind of like sweet potato, starch and real nice. They call it the island steroid, natural island steroid, because it makes the boys big.

And there’s chop suey with the vermicelli and your meats, ginger, garlic, ahh, that’s good. For Christmas dinner on the islands? Fried chicken (laughs), taro, chop suey, egg foo yung with bacon in there. We also have this thing like banana leaves with your meats inside, whatever you want. You wrap it in tin foil and cook it in the ground, like a (Maori) hangi, and it comes out with a nice smokey taste (licks lips in anticipation). In Limerick it’s going to have to go in an oven, I don’t have a back yard to do it in, it’s all pebbles, unless I go down to our training ground and dig a hole in the corner! I’ll probably get fired. My mum will want to get straight into the kitchen when she gets here and that’s exactly what I’m looking forward to.

I miss my friends and loved ones back home but we keep in touch through social media and some of them will be coming over to visit next year. I can’t wait to show them this neck of the woods on this side of the world. It’s going to be fun.