Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Andrew Fifita does not scare easily. Except when it comes to one person. Two years ago, Fifita shocked the rugby league world when he declared he would play for Tonga at the World Cup. Jason Taumalolo was also on board. Tonga coach Kristian Woolf was ecstatic, but had an important job for his two high-profile recruits. Taumalolo had to phone Sio Siua Taukeiaho to see if he would leave New Zealand. Fifita was handed the number for Manu Ma'u. "I said to Woolfy, 'no way' – he was too scary," Fifita recalls. "I was shitting bricks. He looked the scariest bloke in the world." Fifita even tried tried to swap with Taumalolo and get the North Queensland giant to chase up Ma'u. "I ended up phoning him and said, 'what are the chances of you coming back to play for Tonga?'" Fifita says. "I didn't know what to expect. He said, 'give me five minutes', but came back within one minute and said, 'let's go'. "He is now one of the most humble blokes I know. I have so much respect for him."


Fifita recalls first laying eyes on Ma'u at the Auckland Nines when he was with Parramatta. He was only a little bit older than Fifita, so the Sharks prop wondered where this frightening forward with the neck tattoos and constant scowl had been. Why hadn't he been spotted in the junor ranks? Feared: Manu Ma'u playing for Tonga. Credit:NRL Photos The answer is as simple as it is complex: Ma'u had been in prison. Ma'u giggles nervously when you tell him about Fifita's comments as he stands in the shade on a warm autumn afternoon at Parramatta HQ last week. Up close Ma'u is an intimidating presence. There are a lot of tattoos. The words "Love Of Money Root OF Evil" are emblazoned across his chiselled chest. There are the serious eyes. The gold welded behind his front tooth he somehow kept in his mouth by simply clenching down harder on his mouthguard during a game against Penrith in 2015. The scar underneath his right eye where he had titanium plates inserted last year after a sickening head knock against Samoa in the mid-year Test. His mates quickly dubbed him the "Tongan Terminator".


So we kick off the conversation by asking Ma'u if he is the meanest-looking player in the game? "I laugh when I hear that," he says. "This is just my look. My missus [Alisi] is like, 'everyone thinks you're scary'. I'm scared of her. Sometimes." The hardman reputation was further enforced last weekend when a photo surfaced on social media of Ma'u staring at an Eels trainer after being ordered from McDonald Jones Stadium for a head injury assessment. The look was priceless. It should carry an MA rating. If looks could kill: Manu Ma'u has a 'discussion' with an Eels trainer over a head injury assessment. Credit:Channel Nine "I got hit on my ear, I went down, I wasn't knocked out or anything," Ma'u says. "I got up, but the trainer thought I was stumbling. He said 'come off', and I pushed him away and said, 'I'm not coming off'. We argued. I eventually came off, but I gave him that look. There were no words. I apologised afterwards." The Eels were well beaten by Newcastle, but Ma'u made his presence felt off the bench, running for 140 metres and bagging a try in just 42 minutes during a fantastic comeback from a knee injury. He'll look to do the same off the bench on Sunday afternoon against St George Illawarra at a packed Bankwest Stadium.


Woolf, who is an assistant at the Knights, rated Ma'u the Eels best last weekend. It hardly surprised him, given what he had seen in the Tongan set-up. "When he came on for Parra last week he gave them a chance to get back into the game," Woolf says. "The aggression he plays with, the energy. He also has really good speed for a well-built man. "He's just a really genuine person, that's the best way to describe him. "He's a tough bugger, he plays the game tough, but he doesn't feel the need to tell you or show you, which is why he's got the respect levels he's got." Ray Price is one of the toughest men to have pulled on the blue and gold jersey and the premiership-winning captain has a simple description of Ma'u: "He's a scary bastard". "He's got some good size about him," Price says. "And with him and Junior Paulo there they have a bit of mongrel in that pack. If you don't have the mongrel, you don't have a side." There have been countless stories about Ma'u's troubled upbringing back home on the mean streets of Auckland. There were the 22 months he spent behind bars for his part in a vicious brawl. The stories about the prison-yard game known as "crash", which involved inmates running from one end of the concrete yard to the other while surviving the no-holds-barred hits.


"If the older boys wanted you to play, you couldn't say 'no'," Ma'u recalls. "I thought I was the man and would run through them. He's a tough bugger, he plays the game tough, but he doesn't feel the need to tell you or show you, which is why he's got the respect levels he's got. Tonga coach Kristian Woolf "I once got an elbow to the sternum, but that was about it. It was jail. You didn't complain. There wasn't a whole heap of skill or tactics like the NRL. They just wanted to try and take you head off." Ma'u can still recall the first night in prison after being sentenced. He was with five of his mates when they entered the jail late one night. The nerves got the better of him the first time he entered the yard. Polyneasians hung with the Polynseians. Maoris hung with Maoris. Did you get into any fights? "I won't speak about that," Ma'u says sternly. I wasn't going to persist.

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