Nolan has a pair of vicious scars on his right leg and a heck of a story to tell from the day he fought the pig - and the pig lost.
The porcine punctures and a long-term foot injury conspired to shut the promising prop out of rugby for nearly three years. Now he's back, and as long as his beat-up leg holds together, he wants an Otago jersey.
‘‘I'm taking it slowly. But I wouldn't mind getting back to where I was,'' Nolan said.
Nolan (25) was hunting near Ranfurly with mates two years ago when the party spooked a boar lying in tussock at the bottom of a gully. The pig reared its head with a sudden movement and Nolan was unable to avoid its tusk.
‘‘It was one of those freak things,'' Nolan said.
‘‘His tusk rubbed up against my leg and just went through it like butter. It cut the nerve to my foot, which was the worst thing.
‘‘But it wasn't really painful. I actually managed to walk out.''
While Nolan inspected the damage, a member of the party loosened his rifle and dropped the guilty boar in its tracks. The jaw was removed and now offers Nolan a permanent
reminder of his battle with the bacon.
‘‘I've got the tusks floating around at home. I don't get them out and look at them or anything. It's not like it's something I'm proud of.''
He was stitched up in hospital later that day, then had surgery to fix the damage done to his nerve.
The tusk wound came just as Nolan was recovering from a long period out of rugby with a serious foot injury.
Capped for Otago at 20 and named in the Highlanders at 21, he was a frontrower on the fast track to the top. But he never played for the Highlanders in his first season, 2004, pulling out to have two operations on his troublesome foot.
‘‘It started to come right but then all of a sudden it got a lot worse. The operations went well and I was pretty much just about right when the pig [incident] happened.''
Nolan lost the best part of three full seasons of rugby, spending plenty of time in the gym as well as helping out on his parents' farm at Outram and doing some building work.
He slowly rebuilt his leg, worked on his conditioning and made a tentative return to the rugby field late last year. Now, he's managed three consecutive games for his Harbour club in its 125th year, and has already attracted the interest of the Otago selectors.
And pig hunting is still a favourite pastime.
