Asafo Aumua compares pressure of lineout throwing to goal-kicking

Asafo Aumua is enjoying career-best form in 2024 after bursting onto both the domestic and international scenes at a young age. He detailed the key steps in his journey to date when speaking with media prior to leaving for the Northern Tour.

Entering the professional environment soon out of high school, Aumua was mentored by Dane Coles in the Hurricanes and was touted for big things, earning a call-up to the All Blacks in 2017 before his Super Rugby debut.

Now 27, the hooker has been in and out of the national squad while struggling to iron out the crinkles in his set-piece game. It’s taken both on and off-field growth to see Aumua reach his current heights, and he insists there’s still plenty of work to be done.

“I think, in my younger days it was all about professionalism; eating, drinking, recovery, all those things I didn’t take seriously when I was younger,” he told media in Auckland.

“Even the rehab from little injuries and stuff; right now that’s my daily thing I have to do because I’m a bit older now. I’m a bit heavier as well.

“Just being professional and taking care of my body. I also had two kids so I had to grow up.”

Asked to elaborate on his journey of adding weight, Aumua outlined how his All Blacks experience set in motion a major weight gain.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten fat,” he joked. “Around when I first came into the All Blacks I was 102kg and they said I needed to put on some weight. I did blow up the year after; I was weightlifting, didn’t do much running, came back that year and I was 115. I stayed 115 but made it good weight after a few months and I’ve been floating around there ever since.”

The front rower’s physicality has been his X-factor throughout his career, and it’s clear the extra beef hasn’t compromised his explosive athleticism. He set a Hurricanes club record by bench-pressing 195kg earlier in the year.

 

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The mobile forward is often deployed in the outside channels on attack, setting up three tries in his return to NPC action in Weillngton’s recent quarter-final win.

While Aumua’s game-breaking prowess has always appealed to All Blacks selectors, it’s clear bringing his ability in his core roles up to international level has been a challenge.

“This year is probably the best I’ve felt with my throwing, and scrummaging – I think scrummaging was the main one because I did struggle early days against experienced players. I feel I’ve made some good shifts.

“It helped that I had one of the best tightheads in the world, Tyrel Lomax, with me.”

As physically demanding as those roles are, the hooker says it was mental shifts that made the biggest impact on his game, especially throwing, something he now candidly reflects on as a point of anxiety earlier in his career.

“It’s quite hard. I don’t think I’m there yet. But, I’m a lot better than I was. Early days I hated when the boys would say ‘kick for the lineout’, I’d be like ‘f*ck. Please don’t kick it out, please don’t kick it out. Scrum boys!'” Aumua laughed.

“These days I enjoy it, I’m like ‘please kick to the corner’. It’s an opportunity to score a lineout maul try.

“It was a lot of mental… I don’t want to say stress; a lot of mental load early days but I feel like I got a good support system around me.

“I read this thing about Kevin Mealamu, I think he was sharing to this construction group or something, he was talking about having a good support system and he mentioned Gilbert Enoka, he was one of the mental skills coaches. Now we have Ceri Evans, he’s good. And even my own family; my wife, my siblings, parents.”

He went on to compare lineout throwing to goal kicking: “I reckon it’s just as bad – well I don’t want to say bad, but I feel like the pressure’s similar.”