Ian Jones (47) played 105 matches for the All Blacks in the 1990s but this weekend he will return to being a ''rookie''.
Jones is the junior member of a four-person team in the Godzone Adventure Race being run on a course through the mountains near Wanaka.
Ahead of the lanky former All Black lock is a glacier crossing (''I've never been on a glacier''), whitewater kayaking (''I do a bit of kayaking up here on the Waitemata ...''
) and mountain biking (''clearly the terrain where I live in Auckland is nothing like you have there'').
Godzone front-runners expect to have their feet back up on the couch after four days, but the less experienced could still be slogging away for up to seven days.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times this week, Jones said he had no experience of multiday adventure races but had done 24-hour races.
''I guess I'm going in there with limited race experience but just looking forward to a challenge, really.''
Jones is part of the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association ''Cure Kids'' team that includes longtime friend Rob Nichol, who asked Jones to be part of the first Godzone four years ago.
That did not work out, but he called Jones again six months ago.
''I thought `this is too much of a good opportunity to say 'no' to'. If you say `no' too often, they don't keep asking, do they?''So I said `yep, why not'.''
When the subject of his age is raised, Jones remembers the old saying ''with age comes experience'' and then reminds himself he has little or no experience of the terrain he will encounter in the Mt Aspiring National Park or of the disciplines required to complete the course.
''I don't have any experience of kayaking or canoeing or tramping; I've never been on a glacier or [done] navigation.''
''But it's a wonderful opportunity for me.''
He did a three-day tramp near Wanaka recently and he has rafted rivers around Wanaka but most of his preparation has been in Auckland.
''I do a bit of kayaking up here, just on the Waitemata [Harbour]. I know it's nothing like the rivers in Central Otago.
''It's all pretty daunting, but also all manageable and achievable and that's the attitude we need to take into it.''
Jones played his first All Black test in June 1990, in Dunedin against Scotland, and held his spot for the next nine years more through skill than bulk.
But he believes he can bring to the Godzone race some of the things that worked for him in rugby.
''In terms of mental preparation, I guess I've been doing that all my rugby sporting life anyway ... the will to keep going, and the want to keep going and to get up the next morning and do it again.''
Jones said he was fortunate to end his rugby career with ''not too much'' wrong with him.
''Every morning I still wake up with sore ankles and sore quads and a very sore groin. But that's just a legacy of my career, I guess, and in a funny way I quite enjoy all of that.''
The team of which Jones is a member is led by experienced adventure racer Sia Svendsen, of Christchurch, and the other member is former Blues player Ben Meyer.
