Manu Maniapoto was the first Bay of Plenty player to hit 100 games for the province. Greg Taipari talks to the man who played 107 games in the blue and gold ahead of tomorrow's centenary celebrations in Rotorua.
There aren't too many players who can lay claim to starting their career playing senior rugby as an 11-year-old.
But Manu Maniapoto can.
Maniapoto is a quiet and modest 76-year-old. As he sits in his Rotorua home in his favourite armchair, a newspaper headlining the All Blacks win over the Aussies lays open at his side.
The great-grandfather at first is reluctant to talk about his playing days as a lock for Bay of Plenty, saying there were more important people to write about in a year in which the Bay Union blows out 100 candles.
However, Maniapoto was the first Bay player to play 100 games for the province and deserves his time in the limelight.
Maniapoto played club rugby for Whakarewarewa from 1955 to 1969 and played 105 games for the Bay from 1960 to 1968, scoring 10 tries and kicking one conversion. He also played for New Zealand Maori from 1960-66. As an 11-year-old Maniapoto played his first rugby game for the Turangi Moa.
"I never played junior rugby or anything like that. I went straight into playing senior rugby. I actually started off in Turangi, I was still going to primary school when I first played and it was in a senior team. Our dad was coaching at the time and I used to go and watch them. I would have been only 11 or 12, I suppose, and sometimes his team was short and he'd get me to play," Maniapoto said.
"They were players well past their prime but they all turned out on the Saturday and sometimes they were short so I would hop on and end up on the wing. I suppose my dad put me out there so I wouldn't get caught up in the rucks."
Although he managed to keep clear of the rucks, as he got older, his frame suited a move to lock.
In 1955, as a 19-year-old tipping the scales at 107kg and 195cm tall, Maniapoto moved to Rotorua to take up a forestry job and played club rugby for Whakarewarewa.
Maniapoto and his brothers Huri and Jim, all played for Bay of Plenty as well as for the New Zealand Maori team.
His older brother, Huri, only played two games for the Bay before playing for Hawke's Bay and King Country, while the youngest brother, Jim, was another centurion, who racked up 107 games for the Bay, scoring 13 tries.
Known as an uncompromising forward who didn't take a backward step to any opponent, Maniapoto said the skill range and fitness levels of the modern players had changed dramatically from when he played.
"Back then in the lineout you had to do your own jumping. It was always a problem for me because I was around about 17 stone (107kg) that was my playing weight and it was hard to get up there and get both hands on the ball. Not like today with lifting [in the lineout]."
Maniapoto said playing for his province was a proud moment but it came with its own problems during a time when players weren't paid to play.
"It was great really, the only problems we had was financial problems. It was just as well my wife was in work at the time because we got nothing from the Union. Even when I was picked for the Maori team all we got was about a couple of dollars a day, I think."
The high in his playing careers was a Ranfurly Shield challenge in 1963 against Auckland and the low was not getting a Shield challenge in 1966.
"The highlight would have been the game against Auckland when we missed out 9-6. It was a hard game and we were unlucky not to win that day. But the low would have been in 1966 we had a good team and we were looking forward to a challenge from Taranaki because they owed us a game.
"It was a home game but they turned our challenge down. I think we would have had a good chance of taking the Shield."
Maniapoto played his last season for the Bay in 1968.
"Once I got my hundred I thought 'that was it', it took quite a while because you know we didn't have all that many games in the Bay when I first started, cause sometimes there was only about five games [in a season]. Around about 66 we got more games so I was able to sort of book up a few more games."
The former lock said he was still a staunch supporter of the Steamers and watches as many of their games as possible.
"They will really do well this year. They're a good side but the only thing with the way things are now, there is such a short turnaround in the games that they must sort of lose focus sometimes and I think it showed up [in their loss to Northland] in Whangarei."
The centurion is one of 16 Bay players who racked up a ton playing for Bay of Plenty and has plenty of memorabilia of his playing days. One of his scrapbooks is part of an exhibition at the Rotorua Museum to celebrate the Bay rugby's centenary, which opens tomorrow.
"I've probably got boxes of it in the shed. I'm not sure why, it was just something I did."
Maniapoto was looking forward to all the festivities taking place this week, including a mix and mingle of former and current Steamers players tonight at the Marist St Michaels Clubrooms in Rotorua.
Tomorrow the union will hold a centennial lunch at the Holiday Inn at 1pm before the ITM Cup match against the Hawke's Bay Magpies at the Rotorua International Stadium which kicks off at 5.35pm.
"It will be great to meet some of the players I played with ... I'm hoping some [of my former teammates] will be there to talk about old times."
Top Photo: Andrew Warner