Locked into a two-year commitment to the Waratahs, with the caveat that he be released to play in Japan with the Fukuoka Sanix Blues during the Australian off-season, Potgieter was never going to rejoin the province where he made his debut two years ago.

But that doesn't mean he didn't enjoy the attention.

"They told me, 'You don't know what you've got until you lost it' – they actually told me that – and it's very nice to know they want me back," Potgieter said.

"But I made a decision to be here and I came here on a two-year deal and I've started something and I want to finish it. I want to play out my two years and it would be silly for me to leave what we've got here."

Potgieter couldn't get a start at the three-time Super Rugby champions in his final season there last year, and jumped at the chance to join the Waratahs under a coach he rates as the best he "will ever have".

The towering loose forward might have wondered what he'd done when he flew from the Japanese winter into a trial match in Albury in 40-plus degree heat.

But any doubts were short-lived. The standing ovations started after a handful of games and Potgieter felt at home at Moore Park.

"The boys started making jokes with me in the first week, like hiding my car," he said.

"Just the way they accepted me, I can't thank them enough for it. It brings out the best in me."

KIND OF A BIG DEAL

The Waratahs' mid-season signing Taqele Naiyaravoro has wasted no time making an impression on NSW fans, with a try in his third appearance and the promise of much more to come after signing for next season.

But the quality of his contributions should come as no surprise considering the company the 195cm, 120kg wrecking ball kept at home in Fiji.

Naiyaravoro counted Brumbies winger and soon-to-be Wallaby Henry Speight among his rivals in schoolboy rugby and hails from the same province, Nadroga-Navosa, as Test centre Tevita Kuridrani.

When Speight and Kuridrani made their moves in Super Rugby, Naiyaravoro tried to make a mark in the NRL with the Wests Tigers' NSW Cup team.

"I was watching a fair few Fijian boys, especially [Nemani] Nadolo and Speight and Kuridrani, do their thing in union and I was happy, but I was just trying to do [well] in league," he said.

"But a few years went by and I thought I had to make the move and see what happens."

His move back to rugby this year caught the eye of national selectors in Fiji, with next year's World Cup at front of mind.

But Naiyaravoro, a back-rower at school before athletics training turned him into a powerful back-line option, said he was thinking about staying in the Waratahs' match squad leading into their finals campaign before turning his mind to higher honours.

IN AMONG THE BIG BOYS

New Zealand teenager April Miller could be the toughest young woman that side of the Tasman after playing her first game of men's club rugby with a fractured collarbone this season.

The 18-year-old loose forward has played four or five games for Pukerau Rugby Club in New Zealand's version of subbies' rugby and earned the rather measured praise of the club's president Jack McIntosh.

"She's an aggressive tackler, a good ball carrier – she doesn't hang off," McIntosh told The Southland Times.

"It's only president's grade rugby, so no one is out there to break records, but it's all been good."

Miller couldn't do that here. The NSW Rugby Union is steadfast in its refusal to allow women to play in men's teams, saying it is a legitimate safety and commonsense issue.

That's in line with an IRB policy, adopted by the ARU nine years ago, stipulating that the cut-off for mixed gender rugby was 12 years. A host of women's rugby unions operate in NSW instead, with high profile former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski a staunch ally of the women's game in Australia.

Miller has a different take on the issue and is relishing the chance to play, literally, among the big boys.

"It's good to be playing with people who know how to play," she said, adding that opposition teams seemed happy to take her on.

"They don't treat me any differently really – they don't go soft on me but they're not too hard on me either."