Taione: I was banned for biting a player .. but it was just a nip

This time last year they were threatening to expel him from the World Cup unless he stopped calling himself Paddy Power and dyeing his hair green.

Not for the first time, Epi Taione had bitten off more than he could chew.

If an Irish bookmaker's clever sponsorship of the impoverished Tongan squad through their most colourful player turned out to be a real hoot, Taione's demise at Sale was nothing of the sort.

An open door: Taione intends to make the most of his new challenge

They had given their explosive back row forward his P45 the previous year after a European Cup disciplinary tribunal found him guilty of nibbling Denis Leamy's left arm during Munster's runaway win at Thomond Park.

The personification of the 'Friendly Islands' despite his disciplinary record, Taione then tried his luck in the Orient and won the Japanese League with the Wild Knights before resurfacing in South Africa with the Durban-based Sharks earlier this year for one of the shortest Super 14 careers on record.

Sent off for butting, he was immediately suspended. And that would probably have been that had Dean Richards not decided Taione was just what he needed to give Harlequins' ambitious Premiership challenge an extra layer of armour-plating.

Against Bristol at The Stoop this afternoon, one of the most popular players of his generation will be straining at the leash for a piece of the action from the bench while
reminding himself what he has promised his employers: ‘No more moments of madness.’

The one which precipitated his swift exit from Sale cost him a Premiership winner’s medal at the end of that season when the Cheshire club broke Leicester in the
Grand Final and their duopoly of the title with Wasps.

‘Those days when I was a free spirit are gone,’ he said. ‘I’m 29 now and a bit of wisdom comes with age, I hope. A young girl has tamed me and she’s five-months-old - my daughter Mia.

‘Dean and I have had a good chat and he knows how I feel, that this is my last crack at winning something in England before I call time.

‘Harlequins have changed from the Harlequins of old. Dean has brought in no-nonsense people and created a winning mentality, a hard-working environment where everyone is battling for a place.

‘I’ve learned to my cost that when you push it to the limit in your desire to win, sometimes it goes overboard and then you have to pay.

‘I was unfortunate with a couple of incidents. When Sale terminated my contract, that was the biggest disappointment for me - leaving on that note. It was their best season
and I missed out on winning the League. I did something wrong and I accept that.

‘It came under the category of biting but it was nothing at all. I’m no angel but I know when damage is done to another player and when it isn’t. You can kick someone and
get three weeks but you give someone a nip and you get 16 weeks.

‘That’s the International Board rule and I had to abide by it. From Sale’s point of view, having someone sitting on his backside for that long would not have been good business.'

Sale had been so impressed by the havoc wrought by Taione whenever they ran into Newcastle that they doubled his money to move the one man wrecking ball, equally effective in the back row, midfield or on the wing, from the north-east to the north-west.

Philippe Saint Andre loved him at Sale until one weekend in November 2005 when Taione turned out for Tonga against France in Toulouse, despite having played for Sale against Leicester the night before.

Whether the club gave him permission is a matter of dispute but Saint Andre watched in horror as his club’s prize asset, Sebastian Chabal, smashed his hand in a collision with Taione, who then added insult to injury by pulling up lame with a torn hamstring.

‘I have never seen Philippe so p***** off with me,’ recalled Taione. ‘I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to play for my country but, after that, I was on thin ice at Sale.’

Exactly 12 months ago, he was in Montpellier scoring the only try in the win over Samoa during their World Cup campaign.

'That was when I tried to dye my hair green in support of our Irish backer,’ he said.

‘Then I got a phone call saying: ‘‘Get that dye out of your hair or you go home’’. That’s the trouble with the World Cup people - no sense of humour.’

He and English rugby have been an item, off and on, for ten years since he joined Tynedale and worked on a farm in Northumberland.

Taione, conscious that time is no longer on his side, is grateful to Quins for a final chance to do himself justice.

‘I call England home and it’s good to be back,’ he said. ‘I learned to play rugby in the north-east and being up there on the farm was the best time ever.’

Richards says of his 6ft 4in, near 19-stone centre: ‘He’s had two or three unfortunate incidents in a decade of rugby and I know he’s learned from those lessons.

‘Epi needs to get into shape and when he does, he will have a huge impact on our game.’

As Taione promises, ‘no more moments of madness.’

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