The U20s got off to a flying start when left wing Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens opened the scoring within five minutes, finishing off a clean break from second five-eighth Corey Evans to score in the left-hand corner. Two more tries followed soon after through lock Josh Lord and hooker Soane Vikena, as the Mako struggled to break out of their own half in the early exchanges. After 20 minutes the Mako finally started to find their feet and got back into the match, with left wing Timoci Tavatavanawai impressing both with ball in hand and a couple of crunching hits on defence.
Saturday night, in his 182nd outing for the club, will mark his first start for the Chiefs in 1037 days, dating back to the 2018 quarterfinal defeat to the Hurricanes in Wellington – Messam’s last match in New Zealand before leaving for French club Toulon. A week earlier he had played his final game in Hamilton (off the bench against the Hurricanes), while his last start on home turf was another week before that, when he lined up at No 8 against, coincidentally, the Brumbies. “It is a surreal feel, it’s quite buzzy,” Messam admitted ahead of running back out on FMG Stadium Waikato again, in that blindside flanker role he had made his name so prominently in.