KEY POINTS:
You know a player's special when he's debuted for his province before playing senior club rugby.
And that's the case with the only man in New Zealand rugby with anything to celebrate this week, 19-year-old Liukanasi Manu.
Last Friday Manu won the Sir Richard Hadlee Canterbury junior sportsman
of the year award, and a day later he made his Canterbury starting debut in the NPC quarter-final against Otago - and won the players' MVP award.
With Mose Tuiali'i still injured, Manu starts again at No. 8 in tonight s semi-final against Wellington.
It's a lot happening at once for the huge 109kg, 1.
90m youngster, but he's been earmarked for some time as a star in the making.
However, he won't be the first member of his family to achieve fame in Red and Black - his 21-year-old sister Bessie is well ahead of him with four seasons of National Bank Cup netball behind her for the Flames.
Manu started his rugby in the backs as a 10-year-old at Stratford, Taranaki, and moved to the forwards when he came to Christchurch in 2001. He made the Canterbury under-13s that year at Cathedral College, before moving to the Christchurch Boys' High rugby factory.
In three years in the first XV he played in two world schools final wins and three national school finals, with two wins following a shared title the first year.
Manu played for New Zealand secondary schools in 2005 and 2006 and also captained southern region to a rare victory in last year's trials, and this year stepped up to another level playing for New Zealand in the under-19 World Cup in Ireland. Almost inevitably, it was another title for Manu, who played all 80min of the final.
He played most of his schooldays rugby at 6, but more recently has specialised at 8.
"I enjoy it no matter where I play, as long as I'm on the field," he said.
He made his Canterbury debut in the big win at Counties this season, scoring a try after coming on as a sub with about 15min left, and has now played five matches.
However, finding he would start the quarter-final last Saturday morning, on top of his Hadlee award the night before, was a special thrill.
"I'm glad I wasn't told that night, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep," he said. "I was real nervous and excited, but once I got out on the field I started to settle."
Manu said being in the Canterbury NPC squad had been "awesome," and Tuiali'i and Kieran Read had gone out of their way to help him improve his technique.
As well as his rugby, Manu was a successful rower, winning under-17 quad and under-15 double sculls gold medals at the Maadi, before he found he was losing too much weight for rugby. "It's one of the hardest sports mentally, and rugby training is easy compared to rowing," he said.
Manu, who is fitting some university PE teacher studies around his rugby, is also a keen volleyball player.
And good news for Canterbury rugby. He has three younger brothers. Two are already Canterbury age group reps, but even in this gifted family it might be a bit much to expect the youngest to be making his mark yet. He's only three.
