Tonu'u: Time to give Moa a crack in black

The All Black brains trust has been urged to take a punt on rising halfback Taniela Moa if they opt to take three halfbacks on the South African leg of the Tri-nations.

The thought of taking away three halfbacks and three hookers to South Africa has been debated due to the lengthy travel factor if the All Blacks suffer injuries in the specialised positions in the build-up to the August 17 test against the Springboks in Cape Town.

Moa, a former national age-grade rep, had a strong Rebel Sport Super 14 for the Blues after securing the starting spot off Danny Lee midway through the season.

The All Blacks coaches initially named Brendon Leonard and Andy Ellis as their top two halfbacks for the Iveco Series and the Tri-nations.

But Leonard has not played and is doubtful for the Tri-nations with a knee injury. Jimmy Cowan has been called into the squad to cover for the Chiefs halfback.

Ofisa Tonu'u, who played five tests for the All Blacks, says with Piri Weepu seemingly on the outer, the uncapped Moa should be the name chosen by the selectors if they opt to take a third halfback to the Republic.

"If you are not going to bring in Piri, then you need to have a look at Taniela," Tonu'u told Yahoo!Xtra.

"Just on his ability, what he can offer and looking to the future, he should be in the mix very soon.

"I always believe, if you are good enough you are ready. If Piri is not in there and not in the mix, then get him in there.

"If you are looking at the mix of the players right now, you have Andy Ellis and Brendon Leonard. You have two good guys, of a very similar style.

"You have a good defensive player in Jimmy Cowan, (but) he doesn't really ask too many questions of the ruck although he scored a try against England.

"Then you have someone like Taniela Moa who asks a lot of questions and has a huge skills set. I think he will definitely be in the mix for the 2011 World Cup."

Tonu'u said if he doesn't get his chance to travel to South Africa, then Moa should definitely go on the All Blacks' season-ending tour.

He said he could be eyed as a development player by head coach Graham Henry, similar to the way he had previously viewed Isaia Toeava.

"I have worked with him," Tonu'u said.

"When I first came back and played against Te Papa this young halfback was all over the place. He was passing, running, his defence was there and he was scoring three tries (a game).

"I was going, 'Who is this guy?'.

"Ever since then he has since grown. He has started to combine his skills with his maturity. And it is making a good player now."

Meanwhile, Tonu'u's burgeoning coaching career will continue in 2008 as backs coach of the Auckland B team.

"It is almost like another life, it is like I am stepping into another role with a whistle and a clipboard and dealing with all these young men," Tonu'u said.

"And the landscape has changed in terms of their values of rugby and even things like wearing white boots and hair-dos and (hair) straighteners in changing rooms are unbelievable.

"But that is just the way it is. And if you can use some of your old core values, and combine it with what they think is important to them, you tend to get a pretty good rugby team together."

Tonu's first official foray into coaching was with Auckland's Waitakere club team.

He said he had aspirations to go further, including the possibility of joining the Auckland rep team if incumbents Pat Lam and Shane Howarth were promoted to take charge of the Blues.

"I wanted first of all to do club and see if I was good at this coaching thing (and) can I transfer what I know into coaching," Tonu'u said.

"And I enjoyed it and this opportunity came up. This is the next step of growing up, rep rugby again poses a lot of different difficulties.

"In terms of coaching itself, I really enjoy it. And if Pat goes up and Howie (Shane Howarth) goes up and there is an opportunity there, hopefully I have done my apprenticeship to maybe put my name in the hat.

"If it happens cool, if it doesn't I will keep on coaching anyway."

Check out the Features tab on the Yahoo!Xtra Rugby homepage as Ofisa Tonu'u talks of the disastrous 1998 Tri-nations campaign. It is the first in a weekly series of features on the competition's history.