Roff the thinking winger plans to check mate Lions

Australia's chess-loving rugby union threequarter has the moves to shine in first Test

Whatever happened to the Wallaby nasties of legend? Men like Aub Hodgson, who scared the pants off the Springboks back in the 1930s, or Steve Finnane, the "phantom puncher of Sydney", or the ultra-sophisticated forward pack of the mid-1970s, whose philosophical mantra ran along these lines: "Kick ahead... any head."

These days, we have Australians who might almost be described as anti-Australian. John Eales is by some distance the least offensive second row ever to attain greatness; Steve Larkham is living proof that nice guys get to win things. And then there is Joe Roff, the most potent wing in world rugby on his day, and interesting with it.

Statistically speaking, Roff is, and always has been, a phenomenon. Seven years ago, he toured South Africa with the Emerging Wallabies and scored 109 points in five matches. That particular exercise in oval-ball gluttony propelled him into the Test team, and he duly scored a try on his debut against Canada in the 1995 World Cup. He went on to play 51 consecutive internationals – a feat unequalled by a threequarter – and would now be threatening Sean Fitzpatrick's 63 on the bounce, but for a momentary lapse of selectorial judgement by Greg Smith, who was not Roff's favourite national coach.

And now, he wants to give it all away – well, for a year at least – despite the fact that he is playing the most blistering rugby of his career for the ACT Brumbies, whom he inspired to a first Super 12 title last month. Come September, Roff will have swapped the sun, sea and sand of Australia for the sun, sea and sand of Biarritz, where the nakedly ambitious French first division club have signed him on a one-year contract in an effort to maximise their chances of winning the Heineken Cup at the second attempt.

Why now? Why in God's name would a wing at the peak of his formidable powers want to swap a 25-game stroll in Australia for a 40-game mountain hike in south-west France, where danger to life and limb is part of the deal? After all, Roff's name was among the first on the Wallaby teamsheet for tomorrow's opening Test with the Lions in Brisbane, and the locals are united in their belief that Smokin' Joe is capable of seeing off the tourists without too much help from his compatriots.

"I suppose I could have carried on in the same vein until the next World Cup in 2003, but I know I would have ended up questioning my own motivation for doing what I'm doing," the 25-year-old New South Walian explained this week. "I've played this game at a high level since I left school and while I would never dream of griping about the life rugby has given me, I think the time has come to step away from things and re-assess my goals. Some players make this kind of move at the end of their careers, but I really don't see the value in that approach. I want to do it now, while I'm fresh and enjoying my sport.

"A lot of players eat, drink and sleep rugby, but I'd get stale very quickly without some space around me. I'd go insane, probably. At bottom, I'm in love with the idea of travelling, of seeing something new, of soaking up a different culture. France offers that, rather more than the United Kingdom. It's a language thing, as much as anything. When I was playing full-time rugby after school, my mates were at university, living it up a treat. I missed that whole scene then, and still feel the absence of it now. So it was a matter of 'hey, I have 60-odd caps and I've played two World Cups. Let's see what else is out there, while I still have a bit of go in me'."

Roff was born in Armidale – "A good old cattle town in the north of New South Wales" – and boasts a rugby pedigree of rare quality. His godfather is Greg Cornelsen, the bearded flank forward who knocked the 15-a-side world off its axis by putting four tries past the All Blacks in Auckland in 1978. "Some achievement, that," smiled Roff. "In those days, nobody gave us a prayer against the Blacks. For one guy to score four tries against them ... hell, that was big business."

But during his early school days, Roff was a footballer, a cricketer, an athlete and a chess lover (the fourth-ranked under-12 player in the state, no less), and did not give rugby a second thought until his family upped sticks and moved to Canberra in 1990. "I went to a rugby school at that point and started playing, which pleased my folks because they'd always followed union. The year before the Lions had come out here and beaten us. I remember watching television and seeing David Campese's notorious mistake in the third Test, which cost us the series. The Lions were hot news that year, and Campo's slip was the talk of the school."

By the time he turned 19, it was Roff who was the talk of every union school and club in the country, having made a Lomu-esque impact on the Hong Kong Sevens tournament and moving effortlessly into Bob Dwyer's Wallaby squad. "That first year, the game was still amateur," he recalled, a trifle wistfully. "When the game went pro, we all had a tough time grasping exactly what professionalism involved, and how we should proceed. The older guys had been used to working eight hours a day in a proper job, so they automatically thought that we should train eight hours a day. We ran ourselves into the ground that first year or so.

"These days, the Wallaby set-up is much more tuned into the needs of the players. Rod Macqueen [the current coach] can take a great deal of credit for that, and when Eddie Jones [Roff's coach at ACT] takes over after the Tri-Nations series, the system won't skip a beat. Eddie will do a fantastic job. In fact, I think the Wallabies will move steadily upwards. I was really impressed by the way the guys responded to a difficult situation in France and the UK last year, when we travelled without some of our best players.

"It was an instructive trip, because it showed the newcomers, people like George Smith, what it is to be a Wallaby, and what level they need to reach to ensure that we remain on top of the log. Having said that, the last-minute defeat against England at Twickenham was a heartbreaker. The Lions will have a strong English component, so it's a chance for us to take revenge."

Not that Roff is too motivated by such base emotions; for one thing, life is too short. He is planning to build his own house in a patch of rainforest on the north Queensland coast, and he is heavily committed to a correspondence course that will, in the fullness of time, secure him a degree in business studies. And then there is the chess. He still plays seriously, generally against a computer. "I don't win too many against the machine... at least, not when I programme it to the most demanding level," he said. So how does he explain a well-documented defeat at the hands of the Brumbies and Wallaby scrum-half, George Gregan, during a trip home from Dunedin? "It was a fair win for George," he admitted. "Mind you, I was reading a book and watching an in-flight movie at the time."

A bright spark, Mr Roff. Too bright for the Lions? We will not know for sure until tomorrow, but the portents are not great from a northern hemisphere perspective.