Gerry Thornleyfinds the ebullient former All Black scrumhalf is loving life with Toulouse and the club's passionate fans are loving him in return
BYRON KELLEHER has landed on his feet, and no mistake about it, though one suspects this son of Munster generally does. Joining probably the best "club" in Europe, or even the world, was the perfect antidote to a third World Cup anti-climax in an otherwise distinguished All Blacks career. But then again, he has the kind of effervescent, energetic, self-confident and ultra-positive outlook to make a success of wherever he goes.
The Toulouse faithful clearly love his daring, ultra-competitive, ultra-physical approach and the amour is reciprocated. Among the travelling 2,000 or so at the Heineken Cup semi-final, a huge banner was unfurled declaring, "Byron - on t'aime." Six months into his two-year contract with Toulouse he has already been offered a two-year extension.
On a hot, sun-kissed May morning, the Stade Toulousain facilities - built largely on six lucrative home quarter-finals - sparkle under clear blue skies.
Despite three perfectly manicured and symmetrical outdoor floodlit pitches, one all-weather, the afternoon training session would take place inside the 19,500-all-seater Stade Ernest Wallon, ringed as it is by executive boxes. Fresh from his morning weights session in the gym, Kelleher and his equally talkative friend-cum-agent, the ponytailed Joe Hutley, suggest a coffee upstairs in the club's Michelin-star brasserie. The well-heeled are already filling the tables for their three-course lunches, and staff and customers greet Kelleher warmly.
He knocks back his shot of coffee and talks rapidly and easily. It will be his first meeting with the province where his name and bloodline hail from. His Cork-born father, Kurt, lost his parents at a young age and took the boat to New Zealand, where he met his future wife, Carol, and worked with the Dunedin Fire Brigade for 30 years.
"He says he doesn't know which way to sit on the fence, whether he'd sit on our side or their side," smiles Kelleher, "so he said he'd sit in the middle and see how the game goes. Of course he's going to be supportive of his son. He's proud of the fact his son is playing over in France and is playing against the province where he grew up. We're proud of where we originated from. It would have been nice to have played in Ireland actually, now I think about it."
His physio brother, Toby, has been based in Dublin for over a year. "He loves the place, and I've been over there when we played against Leinster and I caught up with him for dinner one night. Yeah, he's loving it, and he's doing well for himself. He's gone back to Ireland to check out the ancestry."
Going through Munster's strengths as "obviously one of the best teams in Europe" - their experienced pack and halves, and "a few impact Kiwis" - he reckons it will be a great final for spectators.
"I know both teams will want to play. For us, we have to meet them up front. They've got such a strong pack and they compete at every ruck. But the style of rugby Toulouse play is definitely going to ask questions of Munster too.
"Injury-wise, we'll be missing Vincent Clerc and that's a shame for us. But we've got a pretty strong squad and the excitement is definitely in the air. It's in the air with the city, it's in the air with the people, it's in the air with the team. You can just smell it, and they want us to go and get a victory."
Many of Kelleher's 62 caps were won in tandem with Doug Howlett, his one-time housemate, and Kelleher, beaming mischievously, quips: "I know his game very well, if you're listening, Dougie. I'm sure I'll try and exploit a couple of areas in his game that I know. But he's a class player and you're never in the All Blacks for so long if you're not a class player. It's going to be great to play against him. And also, if we have a few beers after the game, no running over cars, Dougie, eh? I don't want to be locked up in Wales after the game."
Kelleher smiles plenty, clearly enjoys the company of people and likes a laugh. That said, it took time "to adapt to the French culture and way of life", all the more so after defeat to France in the World Cup quarter-final that may have been his farewell to his beloved All Blacks after nine years.
You'd have thought Kelleher's first instinct would have been to escape from rugby, and France.
"I did the opposite. I said to myself before I went to the World Cup I wanted to enjoy it, no matter what. So after the quarter-final, I decided to go back to France and I went to the official functions with the sponsors, etc, in Paris, just to rub shoulders with them and enjoy the experience. I went to both semi-finals and the final."
As his home debut was against Stade Français, he had to hit the ground running too. Toulouse's somewhat bitter Parisian rivals had beaten them twice last season, so there was a whiff of cordite in the air.
"I'd been involved with the team for two weeks but I realised I had to do something special, and I had to play very well. Fortunately enough I played pretty well - pat myself on the back," he says with a laugh to hide his false modesty, and literally doing so as well.
"I remember a defensive play. I went to kick the ball, but sidestepped and ran with the ball for about 25 metres, and got isolated and gave away a penalty. I was disappointed but when I got up from the ground I heard the whole crowd cheering, because they saw the ambition of me wanting to be here to play, rather than be defensive. They loved that, so from that moment I felt inside, 'oh man, this is quite special to be here'. There was a real attachment straight away. So that was probably the start, and then after that it was just making sure that every game I played, I got that same feeling," he says with a broad smile.
A change, as in when he left Otago to join Waikato, is, he says, good for the mind and the spirit, and has given him valuable "overseas" experience. He mentions, wistfully, the thought of one more crack at that elusive World Cup.
"Who knows? I might be able to use it in the future if my body, heart and soul and mind stay healthy, and if they want me back home. It would be great to return. But that's a long way away yet."
He maintains the structures are more professional in New Zealand, and help in "preparing young boys to become men at such an early stage", but has embraced the more fluid, instinctive, heads-up brand of rugby: "A lot of teams I've been involved with in previous years like to structure things, from first phase, to second phase and third phase, telling certain players where to go and what to do. So it sort of becomes a wee bit robotic, which is not really the style of rugby I like. To be able to read what's in front of you and be instinctive - you can't train that. And that's something I have here in France, and especially in Toulouse, the instinctive way they play the game. So what better team to be with?"
When France ended New Zealand's World Cup at the quarter-final stages last October, six of Kelleher's new team-mates were on the Millennium Stadium pitch where he and Howlett will renew acquaintance next Saturday, including his initial rival for the number-nine jersey, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde.
Did he not hate them on arrival in the Pink City? "I wanted to stab every single one of them," chuckles Kelleher. "No, it was a difficult process at the start, but for me, I had more of a respect for them. I love the game and I'm passionate towards it, but when you come up against a competitor who beats you on the day, well, you've got to have respect for that. Because we fired a lot of shots but they fired them back and they were able to get on top of us. So there's respect there, but in saying that, when there's respect, there's also a challenge and when there's a challenge I like to rise to it. It gave me a good incentive to come here and make sure I performed.
"There's a huge history here and you only have to look in each player's eyes who used to play for the team. I know guys have been adopted by the club, like Trevor Brennan, Lee Stensness and the Makas, and you only have to see into their eyes to realise how passionate they are towards the club. So that really says this club's got something special, on and off the field, that creates players who want to play for the team.
"I really, really believe my heart and soul is here at the moment, and the people have been great to me. All I can do on the field is bring that spirit of never giving up, always trying to fight; that's what I've had all my life and now I want to apply it here in Toulouse."
