“I tried rugby. . . back in the day in third form (Year 9), but I wasn’t that big at school. It wasn’t my thing.”
When he returned to Gisborne at 18 ,after spending time in Wellington, he saw his peers playing rugby and it motivated him to play.
“The next year I gave it a go and I’ve been in there since.”
He started playing for YMP’s under-21 team in 1999 and graduated to the premier side in 2002.
His rugby career nearly ended a year later.
While playing against Ngatapa he was tackled and fell awkwardly, injuring his knee.
The injury to ligaments was so severe doctors told him he would never play again and needed surgery.
“I was just coming up, a fresh 23-year-old. That put me out until 2006.”
The three-year lay-off didn’t dampen his passion and the year he returned, YMP won the premier title.
Four years later, in 2010, YMP won the title again, with an injury-free Kemp in the starting 15 for the final.
He initially played No.8 but as he slowed down, he transitioned into lock, where he remained.
Kemp retired from club rugby in 2016 for a combination of reasons.
He wanted to spend more time with his family, particularly his kids — he now has four of them aged two to 15.
In his younger years, he would go out for a hunt after his game on Saturday but rugby had started getting in the way of the hunting, and that also motivated his retirement.
As did injury. He suffered another serious injury — a grade 3 rupture of his pectoral muscle — that needed reconstruction.
“I thought ‘oh well this is the last straw’.”
It was . . . for three years.
During that time Kemp changed his sporting focus to waka ama, paddling for Horouta Waka Hoe masters crew Voltron “to keep the body and mind healthy”. In his first year in the crew, they won a masters national title.
They were also planning to attend the world championships this year in Hawaii before
Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the event.
Kemp had no intention to get back on the rugby pitch until Colin Skudder — an old coach, teammate and friend — called him and asked him to play.
“He told me we were short in the locks area and slowly convinced me.”
Skudder said Kemp was a hard man, and an “awesome” addition. The team welcomed his leadership and knowledge.
“He’s one of those players you don’t see on the field. He’s a workhorse, not one of those flashy fellas. Mike is well respected around the whole club. He has a lot of mana.”
Kemp said he wouldn’t have returned if Skudder wasn’t there.
His comeback was challenging. The body type he had built paddling waka was more slender and not so suitable for rugby.
He said he had to put on weight to “play with these fellas.”
“It was a shock to the body. Honestly, the first two weeks. . . I thought ‘what the hell have I got myself into?’”
Having regained match fitness, he is enjoying it now but says “it takes a while to recover these days”.
After a game on Saturday, he used to be out running on Sunday. Now he needs to recover until mid-week.
Kemp has seen the game change significantly.
The skill level had remained the same but with the rule changes, the structure was completely different, he said.
“The safety side of things. . . you can’t get away with it anymore. I wouldn’t want to get rucked but back then it was just normal and everyone got into it.”
A humble person, Kemp said he would have kept his century of games quiet if he had known and no one else said anything.
“It was a big surprise that I was coming up on 100 games.”
And despite the milestone, he doesn’t expect the team to play for him.
He wants them to “make their own history”.
“They’ve done all the work this year . . . they should just get out there and do it for themselves.”
