Outspoken All Black centre Ma’a Nonu has let rip again, this time without the controversial F-word.

However, the veteran midfielder did not hold back when he criticised the Wellington Lions coaching staff for their inconsistent selection policy.

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The blockbusting centre will play for Wellington against Taranaki in an NPC match on Saturday – because he wants to, not because he owes it to anyone to make himself available.

Nonu is one of 10 All Blacks – along with Lions teammates Conrad Smith, Piri Weepu and Cory Jane – told not to turn out in the NPC.

It may have appeared Nonu was strong-armed into playing by the Wellington Rugby Union, but he told The Dominion Post: “I could’ve said ‘nah, I don’t want to play’ because we’ve been given licence to rest.

“I want to play and I could’ve played last week [against North Harbour] but there’s a [training] programme that’s been put in place to make sure I’m 100 percent fit for the [All Blacks] tour.

“It’s about being smart and, at the end of the day, the All Blacks don’t win either way. We’ve been told to rest and that’s probably the best advice, but of course we want to play [for our provincial unions].”

The Dominion Post reports that Nonu hasn’t forgotten how some of his All Blacks teammates were treated by the WRU a season ago. “If you look at last year, and this is the point that I want to make, last year Wellington were winning and what did they do?”

They said thanks but no thanks. “And now, up and down season, then what? ‘We need you’.

“The All Blacks don’t win, the Wellington fans don’t win and the rugby team suffers. Who’s to blame? It’s not the All Blacks coaches’ fault.

“Because the Wellington team haven’t been going well, people say ‘oh, you should be there helping’, which brings me back to the point I was making before about last year.

“These guys [Wellington] were carving it up and then you get given three All Blacks that want to play. Neemia [Tialata] was one and Cory Jane and what did [then coach] Jamie Joseph say? ‘Nah, go play for the Bs’. People quickly forget about that.”

In May this year the Hurricanes’ All Black midfielder, Nonu, was ‘sanctioned’ by his franchise and forced to apologised for an expletive-laden radio outburst after his team’s 33-27 Super 14 win over the Chiefs.

Nonu completed an extraordinary interview soon after the match using the F-word seven times when answering two questions

Nonu’s interview included the following opening response: “After they got a lead of I think it was 24-8 or something, f**** we were on our tryline and f*** everyone’s just, what was hitting us. And 60 minutes later we come on top and we scored a f**** last minute try to get a f**** bonus point.”