Piri Weepu admits he lost the love of the game during his time in Europe, and is delighted to be playing back in New Zealand.

Recovered from his health scare a fortnight ago, Piri Weepu is enjoying playing rugby again in New Zealand, admitting he lost his love for the game in a European system he is highly critical of.

The former All Blacks halfback is this year plying his trade in the Heartland Championship with Wairarapa Bush, having returned after three years in the northern hemisphere. His cousin, Damon Tafatu, is the Bush's trainer, and 33-year-old Weepu was quite easily convinced to have a run in the amateur grassroots competition, where fun, not money, is the driver, as he looks to give back to the sport, before hoping to embark on a coaching career.

Having just duked it out with another former All Blacks halfback in Alby Mathewson in a 32-25 round-three defeat to King Country on Saturday in Te Kuiti - a place he had never visited before, but now found himself in on this continued winding rugby journey - a beanie-wearing, beer-sipping Weepu, perched in a spare changing room post-match, was able to explain just why it was so good to be back in Kiwi-land.

ELIAS RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES Piri Weepu's debut for Wairarapa Bush a fortnight back was ended early when he collapsed, but he says it wasn't an asthma attack.

A nation's hero during the 2011 World Cup win - remember 'keep calm - Piri's on' - Weepu's 71st and final test came in 2013, and he moved overseas after the following year's Super Rugby season. But stints in England with London Welsh and Wasps, then in France with Oyonnax and Narbonne, were all terminated early, for one reason or another, and it's clear now the European scene wasn't at all his cup of tea.

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"I lost it really, the love of the game, while I was away," said Weepu, who had forever been such the fun-loving character. "Playing footy overseas was probably a bad choice on my behalf. But you want to experience opportunities overseas, you can see what the rugby is like."

ELIAS RODRIGUEZ/GETTY IMAGES Having not played a game for seven months, Piri Weepu feels he pushed himself too far in the opening round of the Heartland Championship.

But Weepu felt "the way that they do things is totally wrong, in terms of rugby nous".

"It's not just the way that that play - preparation during the week, there's not a lot of focus on skillset, a lot of it's more going into the gym and trying to look good for the beach, not that there's a lot of beaches over there," he said.

"The rugby brain is not as developed, in terms of reading a game properly, or each individual understanding the game. A lot of those boys, you get them the ball and they'll just run straight at someone, thinking that they can run over the top of them, and then they get smoked behind the advantage line, you start figuring 'well, what have we got next?' We've got nothing, because their skillset's not good enough.

"But you come back here, you've got club players that could play a lot better than some of those boys that are in some of those comps over there."

It's somewhat surprising then, that Weepu lasted as long away as he did, before he decided enough was enough.

"I guess I was just trying to squeeze juice out of a lemon when there's no juice at all," he said. "And once you start losing your love of the game you start doing things that you don't usually do."

He arrived home not really sure what next, but when Wairarapa Bush came knocking all Weepu asked for was a vehicle to carpool to trainings and games with other Wellington-based team-mates.

"It's purely just to play footy and feel that love again, and then hopefully hang the old boots up," he said of his latest endeavour.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing though, with Weepu's debut for the province - the 79-7 round-one drubbing by Wanganui at Cooks Gardens on August 26 - prematurely ended by what was initially reported to be an asthma attack. Only Weepu hasn't had asthma since he was a kid. Turns out it was just the remnants of a flu, combined with the fact he hadn't played for seven months.

"I'm slowly getting myself back into... I wouldn't say peak, condition," said Weepu, who is clearly a bulkier version of the man last seen playing here, and whose doctor agreed with what he thought to be the cause of his turn.

"I was just run down a bit, been trying to get rid of the flu for almost two months now. So when you push things a bit too hard the old body sort of breaks down and doesn't allow you to do things that you want to do.

"You want to stay on as long as you can, and I probably pushed it a little bit too hard and said 'just give me a bit of sugar, I might be alright'. I probably should have just told them 'nah, I'm no good to go', do what's right for the team, it probably had a bad flow-on effect."

After playing around an hour in the round-two 36-10 win over East Coast in Masterton, Weepu was surprised to then go the full 80 at the weekend, but was glad to see it out, his barking presence no doubt felt by a rarked-up forward pack.

He's now hopeful of building on the Bush's Meads Cup semifinal appearances of the last two years and is likely to finish playing at season's end and pursue coaching.

But it's certainly a fluid situation, for the man who seems back to his happy-go-lucky self.

"I'm one of those guys who kind of just goes off the cuff," he said. "I hate plans."