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“Got to make sure I’m set up for life after rugby,” Moonlight told me earlier this month, as he travelled down to the Crowley, Tex.-based Training Divisionto complete his firefighter certification.

It’s the program Moonlight’s national team teammates Connor Braid and DTH van der Merwe have completed.

His trainer in Texas took to Facebook to share the positive impression Moonlight, 30, had made during his two-week course.

“So I’m teaching at the fire Academy yesterday and this is one of our students John Moonlight. ‘Who is he,’ you ask. One of the top 12 professional rugby players in the world. A member of the ‘World Dream Team’ preparing for a life after rugby. Graduation is Friday and he leaves for New Zealand that evening. I wonder how many NFL,NBA,NHL or MLB would be at Fire Academy a week before the season started,” Rob O’Conner wrote last week.

Moonlight admitted it would be tough to keep himself in ideal shape for sevens, but he was going to do everything he could to keep himself in the mix.

“I had to make a choice,” he said. So far, so good.

Hirayama and Jones ‘honoured’ to lead

Nathan Hirayama called the chance to captain the squad alongside his longtime teammate Harry Jones an “honour.”

“It’s an honour to captain any squad but even more special with this group of guys,” he said before the squad flew to Wellington for this weekend’s tournament.

“It’s a great group of young guys who are keen to learn and play,” he said of this season’s sevens squad, which still features more than a handful of familiar faces beyond Hirayama and Jones.

“There are a lot of leaders on the team so it makes it easy for whoever is captaining to lead with that kind of support around you.”

McGrath is calling the pair his co-captains, but Jones will take the lead in Wellington, while Hirayama will be the captain the following week in Sydney.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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