Michael Jones on the All Blacks, testing faith and career-blighting injuries
When the great Richie McCaw plays his final game for New Zealand on Saturday, the debate over his standing in the pantheon of All Blacks greats will intensify. The current All Blacks coach, Steve Hansen, has already put him on a pedestal, but John Hart, coach of the 1987 Rugby World Cup-winning side, had a different answer when asked in 2013 whom he believed was the greatest player ever to pull on the famous black jersey.
"To me, clearly, Michael Jones," Hart said. "Without peer, a man who played all three loose forward positions, and with the skills to play in the midfield. A freak on the field, and a gentleman off it."
Talking to Jones is an unexpected experience: His calm voice and gleeful persona seem at odds with the notorious physicality of his playing days. When he stood in the All Blacks back row, he had the nickname Iceman, partly due to the brutal injuries he sustained but also due to his cold demeanour.
Like McCaw, he never really put fist to face. Instead, his physical dominance was built on technique and an understanding of the vulnerability of the human psyche. It was a mentality that saw him win 55 All Blacks caps from 1987 to 1998, a total that would have been far greater but for two dreadful injuries in 1989 and 1997.
"You go to war for your country, you can't take a backwards step," Jones tells ESPN. "In the late 1980s, early 1990s, there weren't the cameras or the touch judges, so there were a lot of things happening that people got away with. It was about intimidation and physical domination. I knew that if someone went for me, I had them straight away, so I just had to focus on my game.
"I found a way to send a message to them that I didn't need to throw a punch back, but I could smash you hard in the tackle, aim for your ribs in the ruck or rub your face in the ground. They'd get the message that way. I'd never take a backwards step, but all legally and in the rules of the game."
Like the great Bryan Williams, who represented Samoa and New Zealand, Jones is also adored by both countries. Modern rules forbid the dual-international player, but Jones' heritage makes him the personification of why today's powers that be should allow that transfer. He was born in Auckland, but when he was just four years old, his father died. So although he grew up in New Zealand, he was raised primarily by his Samoan mother and her side of the family. "That allowed me to move between both sides seamlessly," Jones says.
At the age of 10, he caught the eye of the Auckland selectors as he was frequently seen vaporising players eight years his senior. Stardom and the silver fern beckoned, but he first played for Samoa in 1986, when Wales came to town. Afterwards, the paucity of opportunity to play a top international side in Apia was such that the Islanders encouraged him to go back south. "They sent me back to New Zealand and said 'pursue your dream.'"
A deeply religious man, Jones felt that his All Blacks career was almost predestined. His New Zealand debut was in the first match of the 1987 World Cup, in which he scored. His fourth All Blacks cap saw him cross again and help his side to a 29-9 win over France in the final.
Michael Jones made his New Zealand debut at the 1987 Rugby World Cup Russell Cheyne/Allsport
"That was one of the two highlights of my career, alongside winning in South Africa in 1996," Jones says. "The World Cup, it was firstly because of the circumstances as the first competition, in front of our own people, and it was my first year as an All Black. I couldn't have asked for more. My first game was at Eden Park -- that was truly special. To be in the right place at the right time was awesome. [Grant Fox] had broken left from a scrum next to their line, so I knew I had to be on his shoulder to score. Then to get to the final and to play so convincingly was brilliant. It was the complete team performance, really, against France."
It should have been the start of a career that would have perhaps seen him become the All Blacks' first test centurion. But in 1989 he suffered a nearly career-ending injury against Argentina in Wellington. "The dream was nearly taken away from me in a freak accident. I ruptured every single ligament in my knee, and I remember the doctor gave me the prognosis that it was the end of my career.
"The injury was like being hit by a car at 40 kph, and it was the worst knee injury the doctor had seen. I didn't want to give up on the dream; I didn't want any regrets. It was excruciatingly difficult, but my faith was important. After a spell out, I was able to play for my first game. A month later, I was back in the All Blacks tour for France in 1990."
The injury saw him shift from the open side to blind side. "I had to reinvent myself; I had to live with a lot of related niggle injuries due to the fact my knee was basically reconstructed. I think that's why my other knee went in 1997 when I ruptured the patella tendon. I lost a metre or two of speed but got wiser and smarter. Josh Kronfeld and Andrew Blowers were also coming through. Zinzan Brooke and others also made that transition easier."
Underpinning that recovery is the recurring theme of his Christian faith. It was at times his albatross. So steadfast was his conviction that he declared himself unavailable to play on Sundays. The decision saw his game time in the 1991 World Cup reduced, and then in the 1995 tournament he was left off the squad as both the quarter- and semifinals were on Sundays. He doesn't regret his decisions as he looks back now years later, but it was testing.
Michael Jones' career was blighted by injury Ross Land/Getty Images
"I'd always been brought up that Sunday was the Lord 's Day, it was the day we were always at church and with our family. There were a couple of times when it was tough, there was 1992 in Australia when there were a lot of injuries in the loose forwards and it was a Sunday game and I was fit and healthy, sitting there in the stands. They are your family when you're on tour and you're dying to be out there, but because of that conviction, you feel like you're letting people down.
"It was difficult, but I had to hang tough and stay true to what I was called to do as a Christian. It did tear me apart."
Eventually, his body said 'Enough is enough' -- he had suffered a broken jaw in 1993 and battled back from another knee injury in 1997 -- and in 1998 he was dropped. He retired in 1999.
Rugby is still in Jones' bones. He was assistant coach for Samoa in 2003 and head coach in 2007. His professional coaching days are behind him, but even now, in 2015, the sport is a driving force in his life alongside his religion.
Jones' time is divided between volunteering for the charity Village Trust, his job in the shipping industry and his role as president of Waitemata RFC. He also coaches his son's team. He will never escape rugby; the game is in his DNA, as it is McCaw's.
The great Jones deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as McCaw -- they are the two All Blacks open sides to have won the World Cup. The men are etched into the Kiwi heritage.
You hope both will continue to have some role in the game. Jones plans to: "I can never not be involved in rugby. It is a privilege."