This week, I caught up with a former Red and Wallaby great, Toutai Kefu. To rugby fans that have been around a little while, Toutai needs no introduction! He was a Red for nine
seasons, from 1996 through to 2004.
After first being selected for Queensland at the age of 21 you could say he went on to become the definition of a champion Wallaby. Not only did he help the Wallabies win the Bledisloe Cup five times, he played an important part in helping us win our second World Cup in 1999! One of his most talked about Wallabies moments is the try he scored in 2001 in the 79th minute against the All Blacks, to help the Wallabies win the Bledisloe, for the fourth year in a row! (Watch that moment here and enjoy.) Since retiring, he's gone on to have a coaching career that he has really enjoyed so far.
Even during a time like this, I’m really glad Reds Rugby Rules can keep going, at least in some way. There’s no rugby happening at the moment and of course we don’t know what the future holds. But there’s still plenty of great rugby memories we can look back on and talk about!
After hearing that Toutai and his whole family are safe and well, we got right into it…
Q: You hung up your boots in 2010. How did you find retirement?
I think, walking away from the Wallabies jersey is never easy, but I think playing for the Reds and the Wallabies for eight or nine years, I thought I’d given everything and it was time to try something new overseas. It was an opportunity for our family to go and do something different.
And looking back at it now, the experience we had in Japan [as a coach] was absolutely fantastic and we wouldn’t change that for anything. I think the timing was about right, I’d spent a fair bit of time in the Reds and the Wallabies jersey, so to try something new and to give someone else a go, I think it was a good time to move on.
During your career, what do you think was your greatest achievement?
I think my greatest achievement was winning the ‘99 World Cup. Winning that, as a group of boys - as a group of men - and followed by that closely would be the Bledisloe cups, that would be my all time second. Probably one of the disappointing things would be never winning a Super Rugby tournament. But definitely the ‘99 World Cup would be my biggest achievement.
How many times in an interview did people ask you about ‘that try’, you scored in 2001?
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| Like many people, I've been using FaceTime to keep in touch |
Yeah, nearly every interview. It’s the one thing that everyone reminds me of. That was the try to send John Eels off on a winning note and we also won the Tri-Nations and the Bledisloe I think.
But yeah, that’s the one thing I’m remembered for, first and foremost Tommy.
When you were injured, on average how many times were asked how long you would be out?
The biggest injury that I had was probably at the end of my career, when I missed the 2003 World Cup and I snapped my shoulder blade. That kept me out for 3 months.
Yeah, I’d get asked a lot! But a lot of people don’t know that people are asking that question.
How are you handling not having any rugby to watch or play?
I’m really struggling actually! I have only just come out of isolation. I was overseas around 2-3 weeks ago. The first week of my isolation, I was just watching a lot of old footy games, even games that I played in and that lasted me a week… I’ve watched a few Queensland Reds games… It’s getting boring in terms of rugby.. but it’s always good to reminisce about the old stuff.
You have coached in Japan, Tonga and Brisbane, what is the difference between coaching each of those teams?
Um... you need a translator! I coached in English and over time, my Japanese got better and I used bit of Japanese along the way. The language barriers probably the biggest hurdle.
You played at number 8 for most of your career, what did you enjoy most about playing in that position?
I had some really good coaches and they gave me a bit of free license to play the game. We always had a pretty simple structure, but if there was opportunity to break out of that structure, I could. I had a kind of all-round skill type of game, I could run, I could pass, use a bit of footwork, I could set play up, and I was given a license to do that, which was great. It suited the way I played the game.
This is more for rugby fans, like my mum, who are still learning about the game. Can you explain the different positions in the forward pack and how they work together?
So… usually the tight-five [numbers 1-5] are instrumental in winning the ball in set-piece*, so the scrum and the line-out are very important, that’s a time when you try and win possession of the ball. Locks are usually tall, because they’re pushing in the scrums and also jumping in the line-outs. The props [numbers 1 and 3] are usually short and stumpy blokes who win the ball at scrum time. And the back rowers [numbers 6,7 and 8] are usually guys who play on the ball, a bit like front-rowers in AFL, where they’ll chase the ball and try and win possession, during normal phase-play… I hope that helped a bit.
Thanks Toutai for your time and for sharing with us!
*Set-pieces include scrums, line-outs and technically, restarts.
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