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Leila Masaga - Source: Photosport -
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Some accuse rugby of lacking personality but in Chiefs winger Leila Masaga the national game has a bright new spark ready to light up any occasion.
They call him the Flash and it's not hard to see why after his last two blockbusting performances for the rejuvenated Chiefs.
One moment of individual brilliance elevated the Waikato based franchise to a tense win over the Highlanders in round five.
With just 10 minutes to go, with little room to move, Masaga exploded and stepped through no fewer than four tackles, to score a try that bought memories of Jonah flooding back.
Like Lomu, Masaga hails from the Counties Manakau region, but unlike Jonah he boasts a post-try celebration that would be more suited to Dancing With The Stars.
In the Chiefs 64-33 annihilation of the Blues on Saturday night Masaga may have been overshadowed on the score sheet by team-mate Sitiveni Sivivatu's four tries but his dance after his own try was an unforgettable moment.
After his trademark superman dive to plant the ball he erupted into an electric groove before pointing to his adoring fans.
Masaga though said the dance wasn't his idea, it was in fact two of his team-mates from the Chiefs wider training group who inspired it.
"I thinks it was Ole Avei and Jack Lam who inspired me to do a bit of a shuffle when I scored a try," Masaga said
"You know I do the old hand signal and stuff like that but I said to them if we're smoking the Blues by a good score then I would bust it out there if I scored a try."
After narrowly losing their first three matches, the Chiefs have roared into the top-four on the back of their last three wins and Masaga believes that the disappointment of last season is motivation enough.
"The excitement of wanting to win a championship this year is it," he told ONE News.
"I think we got to a point last year where we got to fourth place and then we sort of lost it.
"For me I guess it's just being on the of the of the table of being top try scorer and try a get a few good games for the guys."
And Masaga's four tries this season have him just one try behind the Super 14 top try scorer, the Sharks JP Pieteresen.
As one of the Super 14's genuine flyers Masaga would not be out of place on a sprint track either and the 22-year-old thinks he's only getting faster.
"I ran 10.65 back in the days and yeah it's probably a lot quicker now that I've built up a lot of muscle&.. But not as quick as Sivi," he says.
"I guess I'm just happy to have the gift and talent of running fast."
Masaga was close to pushing for All Black selection last season and was part of the All Blacks wider-training group and he says the selectors just want him to work on his all-round game.
"I guess it's just turn up every game, be very consistent in what I do, attacking wise and defensive."
Come June, Masaga will be pretty hard to ignore, especially if he continues with his trademark moves and don't worry - he's promising to continue with his grooves.
"Henry Fa' afili (ex-Warriors winger) did it back in the day, what's wrong with me doing that for rugby?"
Nothing at all.
