When I moved over to Scotland from New Zealand in the late Nineties I was warned to pack plenty of coats and jumpers. But I need not have worried because I received a warm welcome both in terms of the friendliness of the people and the Indian summer the country was enjoying at the time.

Unfortunately the unseasonably high temperatures did not last but the friendships I made during my spells with Glasgow Hawks and Glasgow certainly did.

At one stage there was talk of me pursuing an international career with Scotland on residential grounds but they changed the dual nationality rules and the couple of appearances I made for the Cook Islands put an end to that.

I joined the Hawks from Waikato where I was very much understudy to Ian Foster.

Waikato had a great pack at the time with such as Richard Loe, Warren Gatland and John Mitchell. I didn’t get a lot of game time in the few years I was there but that didn’t really bother me because, as a player in his late teens, just to rub shoulders with these guys and share a beer with them was a dream come true.

The Hawks, an amalgamation of two clubs, were initially put in the Scottish Second Division. We were way too strong for anyone else and we won the league and cup – beating a few First Division clubs along the way, including Kelso in the final at Murrayfield, to lift the Tennent’s Scottish Cup.

With pro outfit Glasgow, the highlight had to be reaching the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. We beat Ulster home and away and did enough in the other games against Wasps and Swansea to earn one of the best runners-up spots.

Unfortunately we drew Leicester away in the quarters and that proved to be one level too high and we were beaten by 90-odd points. They were too strong and too fast, and we were left chasing shadows.

So, on to Worcester, where I was part of the squad that won the old National One title and with it promotion to the Premiership. There was a massive party once promotion was sealed because a massive amount of effort had gone into getting us there not only that year but for a few seasons before.

Our first season up in the Premiership (2004/05) was a hugely competitive one. Going into the final weekend it was mathematically possible that as many as four clubs could go down.

We were at home to one of our relegation rivals Northampton and during the course of a nerve-shredding afternoon we both occupied bottom spot at one point or another. I had come on for James Brown at fly-half and was able to convert Drew Hickey’s late try that gave us a 21-19 win.

Harlequins’ defeat at the hands of Sale meant they were the ones to go down.

Results-wise it was a very successful two years but I just didn’t feel I could offer my best with the structured way Worcester approached the game. Generally-speaking, during my time playing rugby in the UK, I found that the emphasis was on capitalising on opposition mistakes to win matches whereas in New Zealand our philosophy is that if you’re not going out to play rugby, score tries and win the game that way you’re losing slowly.

At my next club Bristol it was a completely different story, maybe because there was a group of senior players like Mark ‘Ronnie’ Regan and Gareth Llewellyn who’d been there and done it, and Richard Hill trusted them to make the right decisions.

He also recruited very wisely, bringing in players like Shaun Perry, Luke Arscott and Dan Ward-Smith, and all those pieces of the jigsaw came together very nicely to make a tight-knit and competitive squad. We might not have been the most attractive Premiership side to watch but it was effective.

Unfortunately Bristol didn’t see the best of me. Injury after injury – mainly to my knees – meant I wasn’t able to contribute anywhere near as much as I’d have liked to.

I finished up with an enjoyable spell in Italy with GRAN Parma and then back to the Midlands with Moseley and Coventry, the latter as player-coach.

*As told to Jon Newcombe