Cardiff Blues professional James Goode knows enough about Manawatu and New Zealand to be able to settle in quickly.

The 24-year-old arrived on Friday to join the Manawatu Turbos for his second foray to the country.

He was in Masterton five years ago for a gap year at Wairarapa College, playing for the 1st XV in the Manawatu premier competition.

There he was alongside Manawatu hooker Rob Foreman.

Two of his Cardiff team-mates, Martyn Williams and Gethin Jenkins, had played for the Lions against Manawatu two years ago and ribbed him about his new province.

Goode remembers watching the game and was astute enough to realise the Lions put out a test strength side that night as they piled on an embarrassing 109 points.

He broke an ankle at Christmas playing for Cardiff against Munster and played only nine games for the Blues last season. So he decided he needed more rugby and some of his team-mates had spent the offseasons in Australia.

Goode got in touch with Foreman who put him on to Manawatu coach Dave Rennie.

"Then I had to talk the Blues into letting me go, because I will miss the first three or four games of the Blues' season.

"It is a good chance for me to get game time," the towering lock said.

Goode is one of four locks at Cardiff. There's Robert Sidoli, who is with the Welsh team in Australia, and Hurricanes lock Paul Tito is heading there.

Standard doorways are too short for Goode. At 2.03m and 113kg, he dwarfs Jacob Oram and was a pace bowler for Wales Minor Counties and Glamorgan under-17s. Two uncles were of similar height.

"When I played cricket, rugby was a mess-about on the side. I stopped playing cricket at 18 to give rugby a go."

The rugby at his school in Cardiff had been social and he enjoyed the more serious stuff at Wairarapa College. From there he played for Cardiff under-19s and 21s after a brief spell at university, was given a development contract and has now had four years as a professional.

In May 2005 he had six months out of the game after a shoulder operation.

Now he's had to adjust quickly to the new training regime in Palmerston North, up at 5am for fitness and gym work and back for practice in the evenings so the other players can go to their jobs during the day. At Cardiff the players train at 10am and 2pm.

Goode has been placed with Varsity in club rugby, effectively replacing last year's Turbos and Sydney University lock Alex Waite.

Goode usually plays in the middle of the lineout. Manawatu isn't flush with locks, Hayden Triggs and Lisiate Fa'aoso are the others, with Paul Rodgers out injured.