He played two seasons under Sunwolves coach Jamie Joseph and is an ex-teammate of their veteran halfback Fumiaki Tanaka but Queensland Reds coach Brad Thorn isn't about to get sentimental heading into Saturday's Super Rugby clash.
Thorn has had the blinkers on this week ahead of their Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium match where his Reds will try to repeat the form that saw them upset the South African conference leading Lions in their last outing.
The rookie coach said he hadn't thought about trying to get one up on Joseph, who coached him at the Highlanders in 2013-14.
"It's been pretty hectic since I've taken this role and I've pretty much just had my head down and bum up working and haven't really thought about other coaches," Thorn said from Tokyo.
"It's an important game and I've just been trying to win it."
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While the winless Tokyo side are anchored to the bottom of the Australian conference, the Reds have the perfect opportunity to make up ground on the Australian conference leaders NSW and also the Rebels.
Among three personnel changes from the Lions game, James Slipper has recovered from a collarbone injury to regain the starting loosehead jersey and resume as stand-in skipper in the absence of injured captain Scott Higginbotham.
The Sunwolves have struggled at the set-piece through the season and Slipper said he hoped that was an area his team could exploit.
"If you look at our game we like our set piece and we work hard in that area," Slipper said.
"We're not underestimating the Sunwolves - they can be very good at set piece but it all comes down to consistency in your performance.
"They haven't got the results they wanted but they've put a lot of good teams under pressure and we're expecting a tough game."
