Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Angus Ta'avao On Life As An All Black

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

We chat to All Black prop Angus Ta'avao about his life as an All Black, his involvement with Starship and the crazy past few years he has had!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big weekend, including the All Blacks game. They're taking on Argentina in Christchurch, and we're joined by one of the ABs right now, Angus Taubau. Morena. Morena, lads. How we going? We're doing all right.

How are you doing? Yeah, not too bad, not too bad. A little bit of an early start on a Friday, but no drafters. Sorry about that. What time does your average, well, you're not the average All Black, but what time does your high-performing All Black

usually get up? Friday's your day to sort of have a little bit of a sleep, and you've the average All Black, you know, what time does your high-performing All Black usually get up? Friday's your day to sort of have a little bit of a sleep, and you know, you've got Captain's Run, which starts a bit later. But usually during the week, you get up around 7 o'clock, but you know, you take the extra couple of hours. But hey, I'm speaking with you guys, so happy days. Oh, it's nice to have you up. Well, yeah, it's nice to have you up early for us.

You guys as the All Blacks, obviously a big game this weekend, but it must be nice to have the whole coaching drum all over in Dunworth. You know what's happening now. It must be good to put that all behind you. Yeah, I mean, it's sort of been going on in the back. We've tried to shut it out. There's been a lot of noise. Some of the guys that have come in, there have been real positive changes.

Joe Schmidt and Jase Ryan. I think it's good now we can just focus on playing footy. And, yeah, we're just trying to move forward in a positive light. I know you're trying to move forward, but I want to move back. I want to talk about Ian Foster. I want to talk about him. All right. Where are his sideburns?

That's probably something I've never actually taken note of, mate. But now that you've brought it to light, I'll have to approach him and ask him. He shaves them above his ears. Oh, that's all right. That's a good option, right? That is a high... I think he's just getting a nice little fade option, you know? Next time you're training, Angus,

just have a little side glance and go, whoo, he runs that razor high. But you of all people, Jono Pryor, shouldn't be throwing stones about haircuts and hairstyles. Where's your lid? Angus, what we got to ask you about, because obviously you see her in interviews after the game, you know, you're wearing glasses, but when you play on the field, was it a contact lens situation or are you kind of going around not quite seeing everything?

Oh, yeah, more the second option. I've got astigmatism, so like my shape shaping my eyes real weird and I tried to do contacts, but one, it took me about 40 minutes to get one in and two, it was only like half my prescription,

so I just thought, well, I've done it my whole life, I'll just keep doing it, but if there's any, like a high ball, that's when I'm terrible. You can't even see it.

Yeah, luckily I don't need to, my depth perception is terrible, so I'll just leave that to the backs and if I drop a ball, you know, I'll blame the My depth perception is terrible, so I'll just leave that to the backs. And if I drop a ball, you know, I might blame the eyes every now and then. Can I tell you a horrific contact lens story, Angus? I'm an eye guy.

I hate eyes. And I had to put a contact lens in for something we were doing for work. And the guy who was putting it in, it took him about half an hour to get it in. Because you're fighting around like a toddler. I had to go back to his shop to remove it. And, you know, it's just a pinch of the eyeball apparently gets the contact lens out. All of a sudden, 10 minutes in, I've been squirming and moving around. He's had to tie me to the chair.

And he goes, uh-oh. And I said, what does uh-oh mean? And he said, I've lost the contact lens behind your eyeball. What the heck? It was behind my eye. And I said to him, they dissolve, I imagine, don't they? Surely they just dissolve. He's like, no, I'm going to have to scoop it out.

I said, dear God. He got his finger, put it in between my eye socket and my eyeball, and he had to finger out the contact lens. Absolutely true. That is why I don't use contact lenses. That is it, mate. Angus Talvell with us from the All Blacks. He headed the game tomorrow night.

I saw something on the project a couple of weeks ago with you doing really good stuff with Starship now yeah it's something that's pretty close to my heart my young boy he's got a genetic disorder and spent a lot of time at Starship and I just for a while now have been wanting to give back a little bit

got in touch with them to try and be an ambassador for them and raise some money for such a great cause. Good idea. What a great thing to do. And your son, he's okay now? Yeah, he's come a long way. He'll have things going on.

He's developmentally behind, and he's five and a half now. He's nonverbal, so he'll go to a special school. But from where he was to where he is now, we're in hospital every week, sometimes two to three times a week for the first few years of his life. He's in a pretty good space now. He's come a long way, so we're bloody proud of him. But very thankful for Starship and what they do.

That probably puts things into perspective for you. And for where the rugby fans are getting up in arms about things the All Blacks not winning enough for, or buy enough, probably puts everything into perspective as well. It's definitely been a massive rock for me, all that outside noise and just ignoring it

and you know, sort of going back to my rocks at home and my why why I play rugby and he's a massive part of why I play and you know, the sun still rises, I still get up in the morning, I still get to see my family and they're massive for me Well that's awesome because you're bloody inspirational. You're a top dude.

And also the fact, you know, like, you know, you kind of didn't have a contract a few years ago. You went to Australia, you were playing for the Waratahs, you know, and to come back and to be playing for the All Blacks is incredible. Yeah, I mean, it's been a hell of a journey. But it's sort of, I don't want to get all, like, philosophical. I don't even know if it's philosophical, but, you know, it's just like things have happened for a reason, you know.

I broke my leg and my son was born and he was in hospital for three months and I would have gone to Africa otherwise. So, yeah, it's all these little things along the way that sort of just felt like it's meant to happen. So, you know, I just keep grinding, keep doing what I can do and, you know, let things fall into place. Oh, you are a wonderful human being, mate. And quickly, I just wanted to, next time you play,

it would be a dream of mine if you could be so kind if we give away your used rugby socks on the Monday morning. Oh, wow. Okay. Used rugby socks. I'll chuck in a pair of shorts as well, but hopefully I'll play soon. I'm not playing this week. Yeah, but next game.

The next game you play. Give me anything. And we'll say, Monday morning you got Angus' sweaty socks and sweaty shorts. We're giving them away. I don't know if you'll get many calls for bit and we'll say on Monday morning you've got Angus in sweaty socks and sweaty shorts, we're giving them away. I don't know if you'll get many calls for that.

I love your work mate, all the best stuff for the boys this weekend. Great to catch up. See you mate. There you go Angus Tovel from the

All Blacks, what a wonderful guy. He's awesome mate.