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No regrets: McAlister excited by move to Stockport

26/ 9/2007

LUKE McAlister insists he has no regrets about turning his back on the All Blacks when he returns to his roots to join Sale Sharks after the World Cup.

New Zealand selectors will not consider Kiwis outside the southern hemisphere, putting the 24-year-old’s blossoming international career on hold.

And despite growing up in Salford between the ages of four to 13, McAlister insists he will still be taking a step into the unknown when he heads to Edgeley Park.

He said: "It is something I have made a decision on and it is something I am going to go hard for.

"I don’t make a decision and not go for it.

"It will be something new, an opportunity to play a different style of rugby.

"Hopefully, I can improve but I’m going into the unknown so I don’t really know.

"It is a very exciting challenge and one I can’t wait to get stuck into.

"In life you do not get many opportunities like this so you have to make the most of it."

McAlister’s father Charlie played rugby league for Salford and Oldham while Luke himself had trials with Manchester United as a schoolboy.

Eventually though McAlister found his niche in union.

After starring in the third test against the British and Irish Lions in the No.10 shirt, McAlister found himself employed as a centre by Graham Henry and is now ahead of Leicester-bound Aaron Mauger in the race for the inside centre berth.

The question on everyone’s lips is whether McAlister will head to Stockport with a World Cup winners’ medal around his neck.

New Zealand have barely broken sweat in their pool games – their 40-0 drubbing of a second-string Scotland the latest in a series of walkovers – but McAlister believes the red-hot favourites are still on track to grab their first World Cup in 20 years.

"The boys are pretty happy with the momentum we got from beating Scotland - the lineout and scrum went well," he added.

"There were plenty of handling errors and little things that crept in to disrupt the flow of the game a bit for us, but it’s good to have things to work on and we’ll improve.

"We’re far from perfect in how we’re playing. If we can put those things that are a bit lacking right, we’ll be really dangerous."