Sailosi Takicakibau hopes to make it a bumper week for the Chiefs' Pacific Islands speedsters when he lines up on the wing for Taranaki against the Lions tomorrow night.
His Chiefs Super 12 chums Sitiveni Sivivatu and Sosene Anesi were yesterday named in the All Blacks 22 to play Fijion Friday night.
The three formed a dazzling combination during the Super 12, until Takicakibau got a hairline fracture in a bone in his leg in the final weeks. To his relief, fears it was broken were wrong.
"I wasn't going to miss the Lions game," the rangy 22-year-old said.
"So I trained really hard, spent a lot of time doing rehab, and working with the physio and I was really happy when Colt [coach Kieran Crowley] put me in the side."
The Chiefs lifted his game "heaps", Takicakibau said.
"I had to pick up my game a bit with the speed of it. But the three of us were ready to run from anywhere and it was a risk, but most often it came off."
The trio were responsible for some spectacular rugby in the second half of the competition when the Chiefs were among the form Super 12 teams.
Takicakibau played for Fiji Colts, but the other half of his bloodlines are Samoan, and he opted for that country at the 2003 World Cup.
The Chiefs also helped him renew old acquaintances with his Wesley College team-mates Sivivatu and Stephen Donald.
Taranaki's No 8, Tomasi Soqeta, was also in that national champion team in 2001.
Takicakibau scored six tries in nine games with Taranaki.
