James Lay's 'shocked' reaction to being named Moana Pasifika captain
Moana Pasifika recruit James Lay admits he was "shocked" when he was asked to captain the team under new coach Tana Umaga.
The former Bristol and Blues prop enjoyed a strong Rugby World Cup campaign with Manu Samoa in 2023, coming off the bench in the side's one-point loss to eventual bronze medallists England.
Lay says the opportunity of captaincy came out of the blue, somewhat fitting for a club connected by the ocean.
"I’m humbled and just very grateful for the opportunity first and foremost," he told RNZ. "For me, I’m just the voice of the players and I’m just gunning to continue to be myself with the support of the other leaders around me.
"At first I was definitely shocked, a bit of a curveball in my direction, I didn’t really expect it at all. To be asked for that honour, I’m just grateful, my family’s very, very happy and I’m just trying to stay grounded and do my thing."
Now tasked with leading a club that has struggled in its first two seasons in Super Rugby Pacific, the 30-year-old said he would lean on experienced international players like Sekope Kepu, Christian Lealiifano and fellow new recruit Julian Savea.
“I’m lucky that I’ve got a good leadership group around me with plenty of experience," he told media earlier in the week. "I’ve been impressed with how they’re leading the team. I can take a step back and allow them to deliver key messages as well.
“I got some nice personal messages from the boys in that group, and they just said they’ve got my back no matter what. They’re here to support me with whatever we need.
“As a team we want to put in performances that our people will be proud of. We want our fans and our people to look up to us and get behind us in what we’re trying to achieve.
“For me I just need to focus on being the best version of myself and hopefully the others will follow.”
For Umaga, Lay represents the work ethic and attitude he wants to instil in the squad, setting the tone for a team that managed just one win in 2023.
“James is a hard worker and he leads through his actions as much as he leads through his words,” said Umaga. "The way he plays, he doesn’t cut corners and showcases all the values that this team’s about.
“For us he was a stand out choice and we had a lot of choices in this group.
“He’s not one that leads because he wants to be seen or known, but he leads because that’s his nature.”
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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