Rugby: Mature Messam better for the bad experience

Liam Messam. Photo / Getty Images

Among the barely intelligible postings on his Twitter site, Liam Messam has one profound offering.

"Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions," it says on his home page.

It's something Messam has borrowed from Sione Lauaki - he describes his former Chiefs team-mate, tongue in cheek, as something of a Dalai Lama figure - but also something he has experienced first-hand.

Messam has had his doubters. The 27-year-old struggled for years to shed the sevens tag and was seen as too loose in the 15-man game; a player with plenty of flair and athleticism but not enough grit and substance.

It's something he accepts - "when I was first starting off I used to stand in the backs a bit more," he says. But now it seems Messam has finally matured into the player many thought he could be.

The blindside flanker is one of the form Super Rugby players and must be on the verge of nailing down a World Cup spot. He's been a key ingredient in the Chiefs' resurgence and has taken it upon his shoulders, now he is vice captain and pack leader, to lead by example.

Gone are the flashy passes, ambitious kicks and skittery wing play. In has come good blindside play and it will surely mean he adds to his six tests.

It's a given Richie McCaw, Jerome Kaino and Kieran Read will form the starting loose forward trio at the World Cup but the smart money is on Messam and Adam Thomson providing loose forward cover ahead of the likes of Matt Todd and Victor Vito. Todd is a classy player who will almost certainly become an All Black, and possibly a very good one, but it's felt he's running out of steam in his debut Super Rugby season while Vito looks tired in a disappointing Hurricanes pack.

Messam was every bit the equal of Kaino in the Chiefs' 16-11 win over the Blues last weekend and was one of the better players in the messy 18-18 draw with the Hurricanes on Friday night despite injuring a leg early in the game.

"I feel like I have matured," Messam says. "The older you get, the more stories you hear and lessons you learn along the way. If you don't learn from your experiences, they are not experiences and you get into bad habits.

"I guess I have [been through some bad experiences].. Every error I used to make, people used to come down on me pretty harsh. It's making sure I learn from those experiences and turn them into good ones."

A lot of that learning has come from Chiefs coach Ian Foster and All Blacks assistant Steve Hansen.

"He [Hansen] has been a massive influence over the last couple of seasons, more mentally than anything else," Messam says. "He's helped me understand I need to get my week right and build up for bigger games. It's making sure I train so I get better. Earlier in my career I was guilty of just turning up on Saturday and thinking it was going to happen; just letting my natural talent do the work.

"I have always had a hard work ethic. It's just putting that into my study, my analysis of the game. It's working on my game more rather than just trying to get bigger, stronger, faster. It took me a couple of seasons to realise it and understand it. It comes back to that experience thing. Hopefully the younger guys in the Chiefs learn that. I am giving them that guidance."

Messam is trying not to think about the World Cup; not that easy with less than three months to go.

One thing that will help his cause is his versatility, because he can play anywhere in the loose trio. As recently as a month ago, he was playing a leading hand from No 7 as the Chiefs beat the Stormers.

He's not, however, about to follow friend Sonny Bill Williams into the boxing ring just yet. Messam boxed as a youngster and still does once a week during the season and up to three times in the off-season.

He would like to hop in the ring in the future. "If the powers that be let me and it's for a good cause," but right now it's all about rugby.

Messam went to Williams' fight last weekend and, of course, let everyone know about it on Twitter. That and the fact Lelia Masaga likes planking.