Former All Blacks hard man and blindside flanker Jerome Kaino is keen for one last throw of the rugby dice and should rugby return to normal he will have one last season with French club Toulouse.
Kaino told Midi Olympique he was focused on what remained to be accomplished, especially with Toulouse in the Champions Cup.
"I still have ambitions and the time has not come for me to take stock. I want to know how far we can go. To win the Champions Cup with Toulouse would be fantastic," he said.
Kaino, who made his All Blacks debut in 2006 but who became a more regular selection in 2008, said the future successes of the New Zealand side with which he shared two World Cup gold medals, were built on their loss to France in the quarterfinal of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
"It helped the group to feel mentally stronger. I always felt nervous. Our team was obsessed with improving," he said.
That got the All Blacks through to the World Cup final on home soil when they turned the tables on France with an 8-7 win. But Kaino remembers that win for another reason.
"That day, I played one of the hardest games of my career. There are many, but this one, what a fight," he said.
Central to that was his battle with one of the two players he rated as his hardest opponents, the French captain Thierry Dusautoir and South African Schalk Burger.
"Their common denominator was they never stopped. They put pressure on you and, like a hunter who tracks his prey, never let you go. It lasted a whole game. I loved facing those kinds of competitors. They could turn any meeting into hell," he said.
Not surprisingly, the strongest player he played with was All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.
"He was an amazing rugby player but I don't choose him for that. It's for his state of mind. I've never met such a mentally strong guy. Richie never gave up. You could be down by 15 points, but he was convinced we could win and above all, he knew how to persuade others. He had this gift to make everything possible," he said.
Commenting on New Zealand's loss to England at the 2019 World Cup coach Kaino said he understood what coach Steve Hansen meant when he told Midi Olympique that the All Blacks were so used to winning that they no longer had the hatred of defeat.
"The players were surprised by how the English started the game and couldn't find the answer on the field. England took over the match and set the pace. They played the perfect way to beat them. They took the game by the throat and put in the physical impact necessary to suffocate them."
Kaino had no regrets about not playing in the 2019 World Cup and was proud of the combination he, McCaw and Kieran Read had developed earlier.
"I had gotten too old for international rugby. You have to be aware of the competition that is coming. It was time for me to take on a new challenge. I needed it," he said.