Tim Nanai-Williams says his success is a signal to others. Photo / Getty Images Expand

Tim Nanai-Williams says his success is a signal to others. Photo / Getty Images

Tim Nanai-Williams felt he had no choice but to keep his emotions in check when Chiefs coach Ian Foster rang last week with glad tidings.

He wanted to cry, to scream out in joy, but in Manurewa that would have meant a serious loss of face.

"I was actually having a coffee with some mates," Nanai-Williams says. "I looked at my phone and saw that I had missed four calls from Fozzie in a short space of time. I was like, 'Oh man, this is either very good or very bad'.

"I finally picked up one of his calls and it was all good.

"I wanted to cry but I was in front of my mates. I was over the moon. I was just trying to hold all my emotions in until I got some alone time and could scream."

At 20, Nanai-Williams, who is a fullback, is one of the new breed of professional players who were not alive to witness an All Black World Cup victory.

He's also one of the first in what the Chiefs hope will be many talented players to come out of the South Auckland hinterland. Seeing the startling progress made by Joe Rokocoko, another Manurewa product, a few years back sharpened the Chiefs' talent identification focus.

"It's good, basic rugby communication," Chiefs coach Ian Foster says. "They [Manurewa High] have been part of our 1st XV curtain-raiser programme and we go up there for the odd session so they can get to know us and we get to know them."

The Chiefs have been acutely aware of a problem Counties' bosses have wrestled with for years: that an ultra-competitive 1st XV programme results in many of the region's most talented players being siphoned off into Auckland's high-decile schools, from which they don't return.

"Are we doing as well as we can in that area? We'd like to do better but we have a really strong relationship with Counties and with the likes of Tim and Lelia Masaga in the squad we're demonstrating there are realistic pathways into Super 14."

While Rokocoko left Manurewa High School for the more salubrious surrounds of St Kentigern College in Auckland's eastern suburbs, Nanai-Williams stayed, in his words, "Southside".

"It's really good for the school," Nanai-Williams says. "It shows you can make it. It's a pretty hard community, you know. There's not many All Blacks from out there, but I was lucky enough to be a kid that was pretty determined to go places.

"Hopefully it gives hope back to the community and the kids out there.