HURUNUI Savile Cup polo team captain Peter Dormer labelled Hawke's Bay professional Lachie Hunter a saviour yesterday.
Dormer wasn't wrong. A product of the Porangahau-based Wanstead club Hunter, 33, was a late replacement for the South Island-based team for this week's Hastings-hosted nationals after Guy Higginson, a son of former All Black and Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby lock Graeme Higginson, had to withdraw after having surgery.
Hunter was inspirational in the No4 role as Hurunui beat defending champions Cambridge 12-8 to secure a berth in Sunday's final at Elwood Park. Several spectators commented it was as if former New Zealand rep Hunter had been playing for the mainlanders all summer and Hunter later revealed he had.
"While I only found out on Friday I would be playing for them at this tournament, I've played for them for the last four years in the South Island Open professional league which is played for three weeks before Christmas. We gel pretty well and I play in the same teams as Olly over in England," Hunter said, referring to Hurunui's English import Olly Tutill.
Hunter started playing polo as a 12-year-old and first ventured overseas at the age of 17. The 2008 World Cup player will this year spend his first New Zealand winter at home in 16 years.