Joe Rokocoko. Photo / Getty
As tends to be the way with departures from New Zealand shores, Joe Rokocoko slipped off into the French rugby sunset with little fuss. Out of sight, out of mind, is often the way with former All Blacks, even those as distinguished as Rokocoko, New Zealand's most capped wing.
Rokocoko dazzled the world with his instinctive speed, step, spin, finishing prowess during a 16 year professional career that spanned almost 400 games.
At his peak, no one could touch 'Roks'.
After World Cup appearances in '03 and '07, domestic championships in each hemisphere, many fond memories and friendships formed, Rokocoko knocked back offers to continue playing elsewhere and instead retired in June to assume a role with Racing 92 in Paris, where he is now working with the academy and assisting the club's sevens team.
"I had peace going into it because when you're about to turn 36 there's nothing else I need to prove to myself," Rokocoko says. "I achieved everything I wanted to and didn't want to keep playing for the sake of it and finish on a certain standard."
Rokocoko's rise from Nadi to South Auckland, where his mother purchased his first boots from a garage sale in Manurewa, captivated and inspired but it was not all highlight reel moments.
Perseverance strikes at the heart of his rugby ride.
Through the highs of his 68 tests – five more than Sir John Kirwan and the late Jonah Lomu – and 47 tries there were many challenges and disappointments too. Only one regret, though.
August, 2009, and the All Blacks were in the midst of a funk as they lost three tests to South Africa during rugby's horrid experimental law variation phase.
Rokocoko recalls the most difficult week of his career – and his regret of not sharing the challenges he faced that week in Durban prior to the All Blacks 31-19 defeat.
With his first son, Cypress, five months old at the time, in a Fijian hospital suffering pneumonia and wife Beverley and mother-in-law sleeping on the ground beside their sick son, Rokocoko's mind was understandably elsewhere.
"It was tough not being there and you're a young parent and you don't know what is happening. I remember two days before the game I felt really worn down and I cried in the shower. Because I couldn't be with my son my build up to the game wasn't the best.
"I had the worst ever game. I dropped the ball, I had no energy. I didn't speak up about it and that's the regret I still have. Some guys can block it out but for me it was too much.
"That was my one regret of being an All Black, not saying what I was going through that week."
Two days later the customary team review session was not pleasant.
"I got killed. There were bullets coming from everywhere. I got killed by the media, in the review. I remember Graham Henry giving me a few words. My body language when they kicked the ball back it looked like I was lost. I ran it from the goal line when I should have just placed it down so my headspace wasn't there.
"It was a good learning curve for me and that's why I wanted to have one more year in New Zealand to regain respect back for myself and do the jersey proud before coming over to France.
"Despite getting smacked from all over the place I was happy that my family was good in the end."
Not long after that week, in early 2010, Rokocoko turned down the chance to leave for France, playing eight more tests in what proved his final season in the black jersey.
The 26-16 victory over England at Twickenham was his last test. Remarkably he knew, then, his time had come to an end.
"You know when they say you don't know when you're last game is, well, the best moment for me is I did. During the second half I made a lot of mistakes – knock on, forward pass, I was trying to overdo things. Something inside me said that was it.
"I still had another year. I came to the changing room and I remember Mils Muliaina being next to me and saying 'don't worry, bro, it's okay'. I told him 'I think I've played my last test'. And it was. We had three other games on that tour and I never played again.
"Through those moments there's ifs or buts. Most people don't know when their last game is but for me I had peace knowing. I knew I'd done my best in the jersey and I was happy to move on."
Following one final season with the Blues and Auckland in 2011, Rokocoko did exactly that by signing with Bayonne. He didn't make the World Cup squad but watched the final from the Eden Park stands with pride.
"When they won that game in 2011 they won it on behalf of all those other boys that had been heartbroken in the years before that."
There were, of course, much happier memories.
Rokocoko's debut for the All Blacks alongside Ma'a Nonu and Muliaina in 2003, one week after turning 20 and before he represented Auckland, sits near the top. Dan Carter also started on the bench but did not take the field.
While the All Blacks lost that match to England in Wellington, Rokocoko savoured the night.
"My memories are the sacrifice my family and parents made to get me to that very point. I still remember giving my jersey to my parents the next morning after that game."
That same year he won the Super Rugby title with the Blues: "That was the last time we won Super Rugby – almost back in the black and white days. It's been a long time."
Training indoors at Waitakere in the week he would break Kirwan's record to become New Zealand's most capped wing of all time, Rokocoko recalls a special visitor.
"John Kirwan came to say congratulations. He wished me all the best for that week. That was a real honour because he was one of those legends you looked up to. All you want to do is carry on their legacy. It's something I still hold close to my heart.
"Thinking about it now it's quite rare to get those numbers on the wing – we don't last that long. We chop and change and as modern rugby has come it's all about the utility now, guys who can play anywhere in the back three or midfield."
Of all the miraculous feats Rokocoko pulled off on the footy field his jump-spin-offload move against Italy at the '03 World Cup ranks among his trademarks.
From the humble backyard to Weymouth under-13s, this was Rokocoko at his free-spirited best, jamming with a wide grin on the biggest stage.
"For those few moments it almost felt I was back playing as a young kid just having fun despite being on television and you're wearing a black jersey. That all went away.
"It reminds you that sometimes we get too professional and technical in how we should run angles and step nowadays. When you go back to why you play the game it was expressing yourself.
"I was lucky enough to pull that off. The knees are not as strong as what they were before. You take one spin now and the inflammation comes up."
Coaching wise, Rokocoko credits Henry for retaining faith even when his form did not always warrant selection.
One week before he was left out of the 2005 Lions squad, Henry invited Rokocoko to his house to break the news.
"Two times I've been to his place and he showed genuine concern in taking away the rugby stuff and getting personal to see how life was."
He also singles out Joe Schmidt, his New Zealand schools mentor, for passing on knowledge that made him immediately ready for senior rugby, and his Blues coach Pat Lam.
"Pat encouraged us Island boys to get out of that stereotype that you wouldn't last long and to try and push ourselves all the time."
When Rokocoko left New Zealand in December, 2011, he planned to stay two years in France.
Nine years later he and Beverley have welcomed two more boys, Clement, 6, and Cruden, 5, into their adopted home.
Like so many Kiwi and Pacific Islanders, Rokocoko struggled to initially settle in France, spending much of his first season at Bayonne on the bench or out of the squad entirely.
At the end of that season he accepted he wasn't mentally accepting his new challenge. He decided to again live the All Black values, regain positive habits, and the worm began to turn.
Rokocoko went on to lose two European Cup finals but, in the 2015-16 season, he scored Racing's only try and Carter kicked five penalties as they defeated Toulon in the Top 14 final at Barcelona's famed Camp Nou stadium in-front of 99,000, despite playing 65 minutes with 14 men.
"It was unbelievable playing at that stadium – the first ever rugby game with that massive crowd. It was a memory to cherish.
"It's weird what they do with their trophies. When we won and they were smashing it up. They threw it in the spa and jumped on it like it's a surfboard. All us foreigners were looking at them … we'd normally look after a trophy but they say it's tradition."
Rokocoko and the No 11 jersey will forever be intertwined but perhaps more important than that legacy are the lessons he's absorbed, and the person he's become.
"It's been character building being in a foreign country. I felt I've got more mature in my later years. There's been many good moments and I'm still a proud All Black now. All the things you learn about having respect and being humble you try to take into new environments.
"One game doesn't rule over your successes."
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