Rugby: Chiefs flanker tells of stress in bid for top

By TONY WALL

Koula Tukino knows only too well the pressures faced by young rugby players trying to break into the professional scene.

The man who wears the Chiefs No 6 rugby jersey so coveted by Ryan Wheeler, the player who took his life in Sydney this week, also suffered depression after failing to live up to his and others' expectations.

Tukino spoke to the Herald yesterday in the wake of the "shocking" death of Wheeler, whom he trained with in pre-season fitness camps and considered a top player.

Wheeler, aged 27, was said to be devastated when he did not make the Chiefs squad.

Friends say he also suffered from depression, blackouts and mood swings after being concussed last year.

And he was also "a bit down" at not being able to find work in his chosen field after graduating from Waikato University with a bachelor of science degree specialising in microbiology, a friend, Brandan Lally, said.

Tongan-born Tukino, who was plucked from Wesley College in 1995 and billed as "the next Jonah Lomu," said there were a lot of pressures on players today.

Tukino went off the rails after failing to live up to expectations. He says he started drinking and partying too much, but has now fought his way back.

"I dug my own hole, and I wanted to get out of it again," he said. "I was taking things for granted ... It wasn't so much partying but boys being boys. My discipline wasn't good."

Tukino said at one stage he was dropped from the New Zealand Rugby Academy because of his attitude and there was a lot of pressure from his Counties union for him to get back in form.

"People were trying to help me but I probably took it the wrong way - that they were pressuring me.

"I didn't really want to listen to anyone until I had it taken away from me and realised how important it was to me."

Tukino said he got depressed about his plight, but had great family support.

He said he felt now as though he had grown up. "I still go out and have fun, but to a certain limit."

Tukino said his attitude now was that rugby was not everything. "There are a lot more things in life - there is life after rugby."

Another player who suffered depression, former All Black star John Kirwan, who is part of a television campaign on mental illness, said the key for players who were struggling was to talk to someone.

"Mental illness is a problem in society at the moment that needs to be addressed and talked openly about."

He said he believed support networks were in place for those who were struggling.

Sports psychologist David Hadfield, attached to the Hurricanes rugby team, said players could run into problems when they based their self-esteem entirely on sport.

"You must have a balance. If you come to see that your self-esteem and how you think of yourself as a person depends entirely on whether you succeed or fail at sport, then potentially you've got real problems."

Mr Hadfield said players who brought a mental illness with them into professional rugby could potentially find it tougher because of the huge pressures of public expectation.

And he said some players might find it difficult to speak out because there was still a "macho, manly" image connected with the sport.

"In macho body contact games like rugby there is an associated sense of being tough ... Perhaps it's harder for people to talk about these things."

He believed most Super 12 franchises had put support structures in place.

"These players are not just rugby machines, they're human beings and they have the same fears and worries and concerns as anybody else."

Gilbert Enoka, a sports psychologist attached to the Crusaders squad, said pressures on professional rugby players were immense, as the sport was "in the nervous system of the nation."

He said players faced varying degrees of stress every day, to do with being selected or performing to expectation, and some players dealt with it better than others.

"The nature of our world as we head into the new millennium is that it can be a jungle out there ... The skills that people need to be able to survive the journey are not the same as they were 15 or 20 years ago."