Collins all heart and ready to rip

By CHRIS RATTUE

Justin Collins vividly remembers Auckland's NPC match against Otago at Carisbrook in 2001.

With hindsight it was the moment when the heart condition that has plagued his career surfaced.

After a successful operation in Christchurch last week to correct his heart's irregular beat, Collins can't wait to set about regaining his Auckland and Blues positions.

At the game at Carisbrook, Collins, one of the fittest men in New Zealand rugby, was so off the pace that the former Blues coach, the late Gordon Hunter, spoke up.

Collins recalls: "I remember distinctly running around thinking what's the matter with me.

"I started doubting myself ... maybe I'm not fit enough or maybe I've been training too hard. I had nothing in the tank.

"Gordon only said a handful of words - 'you need to train harder mate'. It just blew me out.

"I take things like that hard because I like to train hard. Of course he didn't know, and I didn't know."

Later that year he was left bewildered again. Normally, he heads training work. This time, every Blues team-mate blew past him during 400m interval sprints as his heart monitor showed a staggering 230 beats per minute, 50 above usual.

His frustrating journey had begun. Specialists could not treat the illness - atrial fibrillation (AF) and a heart flutter in another chamber - until "capturing" it on an ECG machine.

Twice, he fled training after going into AF, only for the condition to halt just as he was being hooked up to the hospital monitor.

On the third occasion he got to hospital in time.

What followed has been a mixture of hope and frustration. Collins largely kept quiet to team-mates and journalists who inquired - in roundabout ways - why his form had tailed off.

Apart from coaches and medical staff, only playing mates Xavier Rush, Steve Devine and Nick White knew about the condition, which caused extreme fatigue with no recovery.

Initially, drugs were the remedy and Collins hit peak as Auckland and the Blues triumphed in 2002 and 2003.

But following the Super 12 final celebrations after beating Canterbury last year, the drug lost its effectiveness.

Two further drugs were tried, but failed, although Collins was told to keep taking them in case they were keeping his condition in check.

The condition eventually attacked him daily.

His heart would pound in bed although Collins had been assured it would not lead to something far worse.

During last year's NPC, he reached a low which carried in to the Super 12.

He found brief relief, after doctors recommended using heart-slowing beta-blockers, but the dosages became so high that his heart was unable to get sufficient oxygen to his muscles.

"I wasn't frightened, but it annoyed the hell out of me. It was really starting to put the pressure on my career.

"It affected my performance a lot. We also had injuries and I had to play openside and you've really got to be fit for that. The coach wanted me, so I just did my best."

Early in the Super 12, he made the decision to have an operation as soon as the competition ended, even though the success rate was low and there were risks.

First, there was eight weeks of blood thinning drugs, which ruled out contact training.

Dr Ian Crozier from Christchurch was the only specialist capable of performing the procedure on the AF and flutter - but by doing both the chances of success increased.

Initial entry was through an artery in his groin. During the five-hour operation, Collins was lightly sedated, mainly to ease back pain.

"I could feel a burning sensation in each chamber of the heart for about 20 seconds," he said.

Collins was the youngest "by about 50 years" in his Christchurch ward. As an Aucklander, he copped some cheek from his Cantabrian companions.

And due to his extreme fitness, his heart rate dropped so low after the operation that it repeatedly set off a warning alarm through the night.

Unable to fly, Collins recuperated at the home of his old Northland mate Norm Maxwell.

"He was an unusual nurse," laughs Collins.

After more blood thinning drugs, Collins hopes to be fit for consideration by round five of the NPC.

"I asked the surgeon if I needed to take it easy on the heart and he said, 'No, you can do what you like to it.'

"I can't wait to get out there and rip into it again, to test it out."

A V8 running on six cylinders

Justin Collins may have been contending with a debilitative heart condition, but he has hardly missed a rugby beat since discovering he had the illness during training in late 2001.

The utility loose forward has been an ironman in the Auckland and Blues packs during a period of highs and plenty of frustrating lows as drugs failed and even diminished his performance.

Collins played six out of 11 games for the Blues at the beginning of 2002. Since then he has missed just one game out of a possible 48 for the Auckland and Blues teams, and started in all but three.

That included playing all 11 Blues matches this year when beta blockers left him feeling like "a V8 running on six cylinders" because his muscles were starved of oxygen.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is characterised by irregular rapid beating of the heart chambers. It causes blood to pool in the heart and an insufficient amount reaches the body.

Top sports people with the condition include rowing great Rob Waddell, who said that when AF struck it was like "rowing through porridge".