Nonu heading home

World Cup winning second five-eighth Ma'a Nonu will head for Auckland to link up with his new team for the first time ahead of the opening of the 2012 Investec Super Rugby season.

Nonu left New Zealand at the conclusion of the World Cup to link up with the Ricoh Black Rams in Japan, and will depart the land of the rising sun now that his team have been eliminated from the Top League playoffs.

The All Blacks midfielder will not play in this weekend's opener featuring the Blues and Crusaders at Eden Park, but pending on how he shapes up medically could be considered for round two of action.

Nonu, who played 110 Super Rugby matches for the Hurricanes, is expected in Auckland today or tomorow.

Coach Pat Lam said he would assess Nonu, for while he would be in match condition, he is the only World Cup winning All Black that has not had an extended off-season.

"We will get our medical people to do an assessment on Ma'a and watch how he goes," Lam said.

"He'll come here and get set up in Auckland and back into the swing of things.

"We'd like to think that all being well, Ma'a will be ready to travel with us for the games in Africa. That will give him some good time to learn our systems, get into our environment and and get involved."

The Blues play the Chiefs next weekend, and will play the Hurricanes - Nonu's former team - on March 23.

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