The game was won, so he asked . . .

MARRY ME?: Waikohu team player Ethine Reeves made a vow to ask his girlfriend and mother of his son to marry him if Waikohu won the rugby final on Saturday. She said “yes”.

Waikohu and Poverty Bay star fullback Ethine Reeves was not just a winner on the pitch after his side’s 40-26 history-making Lee Bros Shield victory over YMP at the weekend.

The 25-year-old fencer at Otara Station proposed to his partner Tessa Ward after the final whistle . . . and Tessa accepted.

“We’ve been together for a while now and I made a vow to myself that if we won, I would ask Tessa to marry me.

“Tessa didn’t know what I had planned — I had someone in the crowd hold the ring — but she wondered where the money (for the ring) went from the bank account, so it was a good thing we won.

The couple have not set a date for their wedding.

Their seven-year-old son Zyrin proudly announced the news when he arrived at Matawai School yesterday.

Ethine and his Poverty Bay team-mates have another big engagement this Saturday when they play Taranaki in a Ranfurly Shield game at New Plymouth.

Taranaki have five former Gisborne Boys’ High School players in their squad, including his former Te Karaka primary school chum Adrian Wyrill.

“It will be good to catch up with Adrian and the other Gizzy boys,” he said.