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Righto, we've had plenty of Tah and mungo bashing threads previously, but seriously now, how do you think Timana Tahu will go?
Will he "make it" and how should we define making it?
Does he have to "set the 15-a-side game alight" or be a failure?
Is making the Wallabies this year the make or break criteria?
Will a solid season with the Tahs followed by a '09 call up be satisfactory?
I for one have seen very little of him outside his Blues appearances.
My main concern is his ability to defend without giving away penalties but I believe he has the ball skills and temperament.
Silent assassin
Will Swanton | February 10, 2008
Timana Tahu isn't in this for the money. He most definitely isn't in it for the attention. In truth, he hates being in the papers and will cringe when he sees this story. He'd be happy to never be interviewed, never have his photo taken and never be mentioned in the public domain.
Tahu's one and only sporting priority is to get out and play good footy and it's this unwavering professionalism that has everyone from Wallabies coach Robbie Deans to his first NRL coach, Warren Ryan, feeling totally and utterly convinced that Tahu is about to set the 15-a-side game alight.
Wendell Sailor arrived in rugby spinning turnstiles and shouting, "When Dell sells, watch these babies swing!" Lote Tuqiri was hyped as potentially the greatest player in either code. Mat Rogers was cast as the Wallabies' saviour in every position from fullback to five-eighth.
They all had their moments, but Sailor was suspended for a positive drugs test and will return to league like Rogers. Tuqiri is the only one left and, while he hasn't been bad, he's so far been less than great.
Now, here comes Tahu, and he could be the best of the lot. All his league teammates and coaches rate him one of the most natural athletes they've encountered. To Ryan, who gave Tahu his first taste of first-grade league with the Newcastle Knights in 1999, it's unfathomable to predict anything other than a meteoric rise into the Wallabies starting back line with No.13 on his back.
"It was actually [former Knights, NSW and Australian captain] Andrew Johns who picked him out and said to me, 'We've got a really good one here, we should give him a run'," Ryan said. "He was only 18 and he had a terrific in and away. He was certainly a talent right from the start. He was quick off the mark, he could hit in defence, he could make blokes look a bit silly in defence.
"He's extremely competitive and I wouldn't have any doubt at all that he's going to succeed. He's one of those people who can slam dunk a ball over a crossbar, he's got that kind of athletic ability. I just hope they play the kind of footy that allows him to show what he's got."
One of Tuqiri's loudest gripes is that he doesn't see enough ball in attacking positions. He gets frustrated at a lack of involvement. Ditto for Sailor and Rogers when they were still around. Tahu is that rare breed of player who can create something out of nothing but sometimes in rugby, as Tuqiri has found to his chagrin, there's nothing to work with.
"Players like Lote Tuqiri have wonderful penetrative skills but the defence doesn't have to concede an inch in rugby, so he gets swamped by these virtual logs who couldn't hold a candle to him in more open space," Ryan said.
"The defence has improved in rugby. They admit they've learned a lot from league there. But you watch players like Lote trying to pierce a 14 or 15-man wall and you can see why they get frustrated. There's just no room to move. It's the attacking teams who have to concede ground if they're going to go anywhere.
"We've seen some great athletes go to rugby but the field just becomes so congested - there just isn't the space they need. But Timana is as good as anyone who has gone over there.
"The bottom line for me is that he's a terrific bloke and a great talent and I hope he goes well."
Tahu's resume: 143 first grade games for Newcastle and Parramatta. Five Tests for Australia and 11 State of Origin appearances for NSW. He crossed for 82 tries in six years with the Knights, and another 20 for the Eels to break 100. There could be few better spotters of talent than Johns, another freakish footballer who rugby tried unsuccessfully to lure, and he was right on the money with his first impressions of the teenage Tahu.
Ryan was a notoriously tough coach whose fondness for running a tight ship was just what Tahu needed. Tahu's childhood had been unsettled. He was constantly moving to different places, living in five towns during one three-year stretch. It toughened him up because nothing exposes you to a hard time like being the new kid at school. But having lived in Bourke, Wilcannia, Grafton and Byron Bay, a 14-year-old Tahu told his mother, Linda, that he wanted to settle.
He asked if he could live at an Aboriginal boys' hostel at Newcastle, and she agreed to let him go.
That's where Johns and Ryan sighted him, took a keen interest and saved Tahu from the kind of boredom that was threatening to push him into serious mischief while attending Cardiff High School.
It's a great loss for league. His rollicking talent was never more evident than when Parramatta played the eventual premiers, Melbourne Storm, in last year's finals. Tahu was locking horns with the Storm's golden boy, Israel Folau, who had been one of the standouts of the NRL season on his way to being named rookie of the year.
"We were calling that game for the ABC," Ryan, a radio commentator, said. "Before the game, I told Dean Lance [a member of the Storm's coaching staff] that I really thought Folau was going to struggle to contain Timana. I went into the box and said the same thing on the air with the same prediction because I knew Folau was going to have his hands full.
"I'd barely gotten the words out of my mouth before Timana had his first touch, stood up Folau and left him for dead. Nobody else had done that to Folau all year.
"It's a shame he's gone, but good luck to him. I saw him out the back of Parramatta Stadium last year.
"There were kids everywhere getting his autograph and I stuck my hand in and said, 'Will you sign my wrist for me, Mr Tahu?' He looked up and said, 'Wok!' I told him he was going to be missed when he left. I'll miss watching him play."
Tahu is such hot property that the All Blacks wanted him. Born to an Aboriginal mother and Maori father, representing New Zealand held a little appeal - but not enough. When it became clear his days in league were numbered, the Kiwis called him, but they were too late. He had decided a week earlier to join the Waratahs. He scored a try on debut in a trial against Queensland.
Nothing is certain in sport, but it seems more than likely that the 27-year-old will become Australia's 44th dual international. In his first Super 14 match next Saturday, the Waratahs tackle the Hurricanes.
If Tahu doesn't make a successful transition, there's little point rugby trying to sign any more league players. If someone of Tahu's calibre can't make the switch, no one can.
Source: The Sun-Herald
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