Mealamu searching for a real home

Chiefs v Blues; All Blacks v Samoa - Keven Mealamu has a dilemma, reports CHRIS RATTUE.

The sound of cowbells brought back boyhood memories for Keven Mealamu as the Chiefs battled it out with the Crusaders in the Super 12 match at the new Waikato Stadium.

Mealamu may have made his name in Auckland and started his Super 12 career with the Blues, but when the livewire hooker was scooped up by the Chiefs this season he was returning to his roots.

The 23-year-old Mealamu was born and raised in Tokoroa, his Samoan mother's home town and where his Samoan-born father worked in the timber mill.

Mealamu was 14 when his father was caught in a redundancy round, and the family - including Mealamu's two brothers and sister - shifted to South Auckland.

But Mealamu has ended up back in cowbell country.

"Andrew Mehrtens was taking a shot at goal and suddenly the crowd noise went up and I could hear the cowbells," Mealamu says about last week's match.

"I went to Rugby Park a few times as a kid and those bells brought back memories. I was a kid here in the days of [John] Mitchell and [Duane] Monkley.

"I still see some faces from my past when I wander around Hamilton. It's been a bit like coming home."

It's home for now, but whether Mealamu will eventually become part and parcel of the Blues again remains to be seen.

He also faces a dilemma about his international hopes.

His aspirations are the All Blacks, but his prospects are probably more Manu Samoa.

Mealamu started his life as a loose forward, playing for the New Zealand secondary schools and the national under-16 side, marking the increasingly prominent Waratahs openside flanker Phil Waugh in an age-grade test in Christchurch in 1996.

But Geoff Moon, an Aorere teacher and Mealamu's coach at Otahuhu, persuaded Mealamu to switch to the front row.

Mealamu suspected his road to the top as a loose forward might be tough, despite his national selections, but admitted to being "a bit stand-offish" when Moon first made the suggestion.

Still, he persevered, got used to the scrum knocks, and burst into the Auckland side in 1999 when they won the NPC in the World Cup year.

The following year, he made the Robbie Deans-coached New Zealand A side for a short tour to France, Wales and Romania.

Mealamu, though, has struggled to get a starting spot in the Blues, with first the imported Davin Heaps and then Slade McFarland holding favour with the parade of coaches who have passed through.

He had just one start last year, against the Brumbies at Auckland late in the season, where some lineout throwing mishaps helped to lead to what Mealamu admits was "a shocker."

This year he was chopped, with Peter Sloane preferring McFarland and Northland new boy Derren Witcombe.

Kevin Greene's Chiefs, however, were quick to step in and give Mealamu a second chance. So he headed back Hamilton way, where he flats with the Steelers' Kristian Ormsby and Wayne McEntee, although he returns to Auckland as often as possible where his partner Latai and their five-month-old son Samuel have remained.

Mealamu has provided much-needed athleticism to the Chiefs front row. His cutting runs in the tight and ability to get around the field at pace gives him a rare advantage for a front rower, but there are often questions raised about his relatively small physique for a hooker.

In other words, can he hack it physically?

Compared to some of the larger hooking units in the competition - the likes of McFarland and Anton Oliver, who are a good 10kg heavier - Mealamu is a lightweight. But while probably being the smallest hooker in the competition, Mealamu is not far off tipping the scales close to All Black No 2 Tom Willis and Wallaby Jeremy Paul.

"I've heard those comments. It's not the size of the man in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the man," says Mealamu, leaning on a good old saying.

Ask Mealamu about where some of his future prospects might lie, and he is understandably coy.

Auckland, after all, is really his home now, and you suspect he would not mind returning to the Blues squad - although Mealamu himself will not go that far.

He would also be guaranteed a place in the Samoa team, and thus the World Cup beckons, but Mealamu has not put his hand up for the John Boe-coached team.

"I grew up here and I always wanted to be an All Black," Mealamu says. He leaves the subject there.

Boe rates Mealamu as his No 1 hooking prospect, describing him as "a superb footballer."

But Boe says that players such as Mealamu fear their New Zealand Super 12 contracts could be hurt if they declare allegiance to another country.

Maybe the great Michael Jones might eventually have some sway in Mealamu's international prospects. Mealamu, as a young loose forward, idolised the man rated by many as the greatest to wear the No 7 jersey.

Mealamu has no hesitation in pinpointing his favourite playing memory, when in 1999 he lined up with Jones for his final game at Eden Park.

"He was my role model ... not just the way he played, but for the way he came back from injury to still play the way he did," Mealamu says.

And it is that same Michael Jones who just happens to be Samoa's assistant coach.