One of the most well-liked All Blacks is ready to farewell test rugby on Saturday, a pesky nickname the only irksome souvenir of a record-breaking career.
Prop Greg Somerville, Yoda to his teammates, will play his 65th and final test against the Wallabies here on Saturday before departing to English club Gloucester.
He hasn't officially retired and isn't required at his new club until December, but Somerville has all but scratched the idea of playing the fourth Bledisloe Cup test in Hong Kong and the Grand Slam tour in November.
To add confirmation, teammates Jerome Kaino and Tony Woodcock both admitted the test was being discussed as a Somerville farewell.
"I've just got to make the most of the occasion. It's a great week, no matter whether it's my last or not. I'll just get stuck in on the weekend," Somerville said.
"(Coach Graham Henry) has got a plan in place maybe for developing other guys (on the tour) so we'll just have to wait and see how that goes.
"I'll just play it by ear, plan for the second option and work from there. I'll plan to be ready to go away, family wise it'll be easier."
Wife Renee and daughters Paige and Eden will pack up from Christchurch and accompany Somerville to England.
Somerville got his big break in 1998 when current assistant coaches Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen picked him for the Crusaders on the strength of one NPC match. He made his test debut two years later against Tonga.
By then his Star Wars-inspired monicker had well and truly stuck, not especially to the good-natured Somerville's liking.
"We were in the New Zealand Colts, swimming around the pool one day and Xavier Rush decided to call me Yoda. I thought it was strange. It must have been a bad response and it stuck.
"I couldn't understand why he was calling me Yoda to tell the truth. There's no supernatural powers, I must have been looking a bit like a creature.
"I haven't really brought into it that much. I have seen Star Wars but I haven't played along with it. I don't know how wise I am either."
Longevity and durability have been Somerville's traits. He made it to top prop despite losing part of his big toe in a lawnmower accident as a child and bouncing back from a ruptured achilles tendon in 2006.
Wairoa-born Somerville will retire as the most-capped All Blacks prop, having passed Craig Dowd's record of 58 tests this year. It's a proud record and wraps a hugely satisfying eight-year stint, on his terms.
"I've had a great time no matter what happens. I've had a good stint and in my head I've accepted that and it's not a big issue to let go.
"I've done as much as I can and I've had a good time, it's been more than I could have asked for.
"I'm pretty happy to come back from that (injury), and this year's been great. To have to retire as a result of an injury would have been really disappointing, especially after four or five years where I put everything into it. It would have been nagging away at me for a while.
"And if the axe had been wielded it wouldn't have been that great, either."
The Auckland Bledisloe Cup win of 2003 remains Somerville's proudest All Blacks moment, a breakthrough win which began their current five-year tenure.
He admits it's a slight worry that he and fellow scrum rock Carl Hayman have departed within a year of each other, leaving loosehead Woodcock as the senior man.
But with the input of All Blacks scrum guru Mike Cron, Somerville was confident the propping depth will be maintained, with tightheads John Afoa, Neemia Tialata and Ben Franks leading the way.
"There's one or two here that go pretty well. I think there's enough depth and looking to the future you've got to start developing guys and putting them in the heat of the moment to really get the most out of them.
"I know there's a good batch of under-20s coming through, so more time in first-class rugby and with Mike's development programme those guys will really come through."
