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It is some playground Brad Thorn works in. He likened himself to a big kid in his comeback season for the All Blacks, someone who yearned for more of his extended sporting career and was just thriving in his second spin in the All Blacks jersey.
There was only one downside: the absence from his wife and three boys under 5 in Christchurch and the busy, all-consuming role he played in their family life.
He was also a bit twitchy about missing the test against Scotland but understood the team values and need to integrate others into the All Blacks from the huge travelling squad. But he was hungry to add to the more than 300 appearances in top-level sport he has gathered in 21 All Black tests, 52 games for the Crusaders, 26 for Canterbury, eight tests for Kangaroos, 14 State of Origin matches and 214 games for the Brisbane Broncos.
Just totting up those matches leaves you feeling a bit weary but the 33-year-old Thorn is just busting for more work. How much longer he will play is known only to him but the way he is talking there is no retirement on the horizon. He gets grizzly if he is not playing.
"I have not had any injuries in my career, I love the life, love going to the gym, I love training my butt off, I love playing, I love contact sport and love this camaraderie," he said before tomorrow's test at Croke Park against Ireland. "So basically I am doing something I just love doing and I will just keep on doing it."
His later-in-life second chance in rugby was just exciting, and a huge bonus. But it did not pay to be near the All Black lock for a while when he was rested for the second test of the tour against Scotland in Edinburgh.
"I was maybe like that for half a day or so because I just like to play. I guess when you are a bigger guy it helps bigger guys to play because if I have a break it makes it a bit harder in the following game to play.
"Maybe for me it is just my history of playing 24-26 rounds, plus Origins plus Australia so maybe it is what I am conditioned to and what I feel comfortable with, but in saying that there are 35 guys here and some guys have not got to play at all yet.
"So it was great to see those guys go out the other night. You have to weigh all that up and it is not about you, it's about the others too."
Thorn resumed his All Black career against Ireland midyear and remembers that as a bit of a forward dogfight in tough conditions. Ireland, at the end of a very long season, were disadvantaged and could not be blamed for being weary.
"We are expecting a pretty fresh, excited team here [in Dublin] so it could be a daunting task as we really rate them compared to what some media people have been painting."
His Irish rivals, Paul O'Connell and Donnacha O'Callaghan, were very solid craftsmen, leaders in the battle-hardened core of the Munster pack who were used to big games, had loads of experience and would grit their way through an entire game.
Ireland had added another attacking dimension to their game, they were giving the ball more air - though that would depend this weekend on weather. Most British sides emphasised their work in the pack first before they tried some greater width to their game.
