Recalled Wallabies No.8 Radike Samo has revealed that he was labelled 'too old and too slow' for Super Rugby recruitment by every Australian franchise except the Queensland Reds.
In one of the year's most popular comeback stories, 35-year-old Samo, who had been languishing in Sydney club rugby, was shown a vote of faith by Reds mastermind Ewen McKenzie and went on to play a dominant role in the side's championship winning season.
His form was enough to warrant a recall to the Wallabies squad – after last wearing the green and gold in a six-Test stint in 2004 – and the ascension is now complete with his elevation to the starting side for Saturday night's Tri-Nations decider against the All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium.
And now the Fijian-born man-mountain has impressed national coach Robbie Deans enough to push in-form Scott Higginbotham to the bench.
Yet when he was shopped around after a period as a rugby journeyman playing in France and Japan, the consensus view among Australia's Super 15 recruitment talent was that Samo had passed his expiry date.
"I never thought I'd be back here... I'm a bit surprised that I'm in the starting 15," he said.
"To look back and think about it, it's kind of really funny, because I'd been talking to a few of the other states about really wanting to having another crack at Super Rugby, and what I got back was that I was a bit too old and that I'm not quick enough to play at this level."
"There was only one person that believed in me and got me on the squad, the Reds coach Ewen McKenzie."
"When I left Japan I said to my manager that I wanted to have another crack, but he got back to be and said the other clubs said I was too old and too slow to play at this level."
"I was pretty surprised for Ewen to accept me to come and join the Reds. I never thought I'd be back here after what I heard."
The 197cm enforcer had been badly underestimated before, when in 2003 Fijian selectors passed him over, just a year before he was snaffled up by Australian selectors for his first crack at international level.
"I was trying (to make the Fijian side) in 2003, but I'd been told I wasn't good enough to. Back then I was really mad about it," he said.
"At first they told me I was in the squad, then I wasn't, then they told me I wasn't good enough."
"But the year after I made the Wallabies, which is kind of really stupid. But oh well, that's life and you move on."
Returning to Australia with Queensland at the back end of 2010, he impressed enough to earn a contract for the following season, where he would go on to be part of the Reds grand final win over the Crusaders on his 35th birthday.
Now in career-best form and described by Deans as a rare case of a forward having X-factor ability, Samo credits a credits a self-imposed alcohol ban and strict work ethic for his rugby renaissance.
"When I joined the Reds there were only two of us that were this age, me and Van Humphries... it made me work twice as hard," he said.
"It goes from the way you train during the week and the way you