Liam Messam doesn’t know if his return to the Chiefs was a one-off, but he’s determined to do all he can to help the team defeat the Crusaders in the Super Rugby Aotearoa final.
The 37-year-old Messam wound back the clock on Saturday night, coming off the bench in the 55th minute in the Chiefs’ 39-19 loss to the Blues at Eden Park.
The veteran was called into the squad last Tuesday after it was confirmed Kaylum Boshier, Mitchell Karpik and Simon Parker all had injuries that would sideline them for the rest of the season.
It was Messam’s first appearance for the Chiefs since 2018 and his 180th overall, but he says he doesn’t know if he’ll get to 181.
“I’m not sure,” Messam told Stuff.
“We’ll get the boys prepared, no matter what happens if I’m playing or not. My mindset is about getting everyone ready for a big final next week.”
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan made 11 changes to his team for the Blues game, deciding to rest his regular starters, to get them fresh for the final.
Despite the rawness of the Chiefs side that played, Messam said they did a great job against a far more experienced Blues team.
“The boys can be really proud of the effort,” Messam said.
"The scoreline doesn’t reflect that, but our young boys came up here and took it to the Blues for 70 minutes, but couldn’t hang on for those last 10 minutes.
“I reckon they should be really proud of the effort they showed and you can’t get experiences like this in training.
“To be at Eden Park, play in front of a good crowd when the pressure was high, it was good for those young fellas to come up and I think they did really well.”
As for Messam in the game, he certainly held up his own and said he enjoyed the experience.
“It was awesome, unexpected,” he said.
“I think one of the boys went down pretty early on, around the 20-minute mark and they told me to warm up, but then they thought better of it.
“It was good to get a run, I hadn’t played rugby for a while. It was great to get the boots out there, they’re new boots as well.”
Messam co-captained the Chiefs when they won Super Rugby titles in 2012 and 2013, so he knows a good Chiefs team when he sees one and regards this current crop as one of the best.
“It’s an awesome bunch of boys,” he said.
“There’s a great culture, they work really hard and I don’t think a lot of people see what happens behind the scenes and they’re getting what they’ve earned.”
Messam had been training with the Chiefs for one day a week this season. He doesn’t yet feel the urge to hang up the boots permanently and has big plans for the rest of the year.
“Well hopefully a few clubs were watching that,” he joked.
“I hope I’ll be playing for Waikato this year, that’s the plan.
“It’s a big year for Waikato, it’s our 100th year and it would be awesome to be involved with that, but we’ll see what happens.”