Rugby: Ropati finds new field of dreams

By Chris Rattue

Romi Ropati's field of dreams was a patch of land between his parents' house in Mt Wellington and the edge of the Tamaki estuary.

And beyond that plot of land, which became a regular football field for Ropati and his rugby league brothers, the estuary provided another competitive playground for everything from swimming races to sprints around the jagged rocks.

Not that he needed his dreams to find out what sporting stardom was all about.

Ropati, the youngest in the renowned rugby league family, had just turned seven when brother Joe scored a famous try as the Kiwis beat Australia in Brisbane in 1983 - their first victory over the Australians in 12 years.

As replays showed Joe Ropati brushing off ace wing Eric Grothe to score the match-sealing try, Australian television commentator Arthur Summons yelled: "There's Joe Ropati - 15 stone and the smallest of six."

Which was not quite on the mark. Joe Ropati was hardly the smallest of the clan, and the number of brothers was seven. Maybe Summons did not know about wee Romi, who followed Feu, Peter, John, Joe, Tea and Iva, with sister Susan appearing between John and Joe.

Joe, Tea and Iva are the only set of three brothers to play tests for the Kiwis, and the other brothers all had varying degrees of success in rugby league.

But it was the long-held ambition of their parents, Sosene and Margaret, to send the boys to Auckland Grammar which led to Romi taking a different sporting tack.

The Ropatis were determined to give what they believed was the best possible education for their children and, to them, Auckland Grammar was where they should go.

They lived out-of-zone but tried to get oldest brother Feu in. When that didn't work out, he attended the nearby Otahuhu College, and the family followed suit.

By the time Romi was ready for college, Peter had bought a house in Remuera and the family qualified the youngest Ropati for Auckland Grammar through that.

And there wasn't a heck of a lot of rugby league going on at Auckland Grammar, a school with traditions steeped in union.

So Romi, who had played rugby league for the Otahuhu club, switched codes as they say.

"It wasn't a big deal. I wanted to play rugby and I had friends who were into it," says Romi. "I got a bit of a ribbing from my brothers at first but I didn't take too much notice and it was hard to tell how serious they were."

Peter, the one-time Auckland forward who is now a television sports commentator, remembers it differently.

"A lot of people don't fully appreciate that, for some people, sport is sport whatever it is," he says.

"If we'd had a soccer club next to us we might all have ended up playing that. It didn't matter to us what sport Romi played."

The youngest Ropati did manage a couple of rugby league appearances at Carlaw Park during his teen years.

He turned out in the 1993 Pacific Cup (for Tokelau rather than Samoa), and cut the opposition to pieces in a game between a Warriors/Invitation side and the champion Northcote club a couple of years later.

Rugby union, though, was the sport he was making a mark in, playing for the national secondary schools, under-19s and Colts.

He had a handful of games for Auckland in 1996, scoring a try after coming on as a replacement against Counties Manukau in the NPC final.

But Otago coach Glenn Ross made contact at the end of the season, promising him a starting spot in a side he was trying to rebuild. At the same time Kees Meeuws and Mat Carrington also made the move south.

A subsequent shoulder reconstruction slowed Ropati's ability to settle in to the Otago NPC and Super 12 campaigns, but he really made a mark in the national championship last season when he played in all 13 matches at either wing or centre.

He started this Super 12 season on the wing but, following the long-term injury to Jeremy Stanley, moved back to centre, where he played nine Super 12 matches in 1997 when the Highlanders finished last.

It will be a classic clash between the skills of Ropati and the more powerful approach of Norm Berryman - the pair marked each other on the wing in the NPC last season - in tomorrow afternoon's Super 12 final at Carisbrook.

The inevitable question the 22-year-old Ropati faces is whether he would consider returning to rugby league. The Warriors have made it plain they would welcome him in their embattled squad.

Ropati was one of the surprise omissions from the New Zealand A rugby squad announced this week, sparking further Warriors interest.

Ropati is adamant his interest lies in pursuing his rugby career although you get the feeling that if his dream of playing for the All Blacks ever faded away, he might just be tempted.

And what of that field of dreams near the water at Mt Wellington. The new generation of Ropatis are regular visitors with their parents, who all live in Auckland with their top class football careers over.

The youngest Ropatis play on that same field, although they do not enjoy the amount of room their parents had.

Sosene has planted most of the land in tomatoes and taro.