Friendly face in enemy camp

KAHU TAMATEA: Excited about facing his former province in the Heartland Championships semis. Picture by Paul Rickard

Kahu Tamatea had a chuckle when he heard who his opponents will be in the Heartland Championship’s Lochore Cup semifinal this weekend — Poverty Bay, who he played for more than 80 times.

Nowadays, Tamatea, 38, is with West Coast who were not scheduled to face the Bay in the eight-match round-robin draw.

But a combination of Poverty Bay losing to Buller and West Coast beating South Canterbury on Saturday put the two teams in each other’s path as they try to make the Lochore Cup final.

“I’m pretty excited,” Tamatea told The Herald this week. “It adds something more to it.”

Tamatea is good friends with Poverty Bay halfback Mario Counsell. They played together for Poverty Bay premier club side YMP.

He reeled off a list of names of Bay players he knew well — Kelvin Smith, Ethine Reeves, Tamanui Hill, Scotty McKinley, Willy Grogan and captain Ken Houkamau.

Tamatea played his first competition game for Poverty Bay in 2000 when he was 19. It was against West Coast and the Bay won 51-6.

He wore the scarlet jersey from 2000 to 2002, 2005 to 2011 and in 2015, picking up 82 caps.

If he gets a little sentimental in Greymouth on Saturday, it will not be the first emotional moment for the veteran this year.

His 100th first-class game was against Ngati Porou East Coast, another province he has represented. Tamatea had nine caps for NPEC in 2003.

West Coast got away with a 21-19 victory over East Coast in Ruatoria on September 28 and Tamatea said facing their haka was “spine-tingling stuff”.

Tamatea, who lives in Nelson, said his team did a good job of absorbing pressure in that game.

They must have done so again on Saturday, coming from 17-0 down to pip South Canterbury 27-24.

Tamatea has tended to come off the substitutes bench this year but he started last week at first five-eighth.

South Canterbury dominated possession in the first half-hour of that game, he said, but West Coast responded with a try before halftime and carried on to pull off their come-from-behind win.

Playing alongside family a highlight“We were confident that once we got the ball we could make inroads.”

Tamatea said playing alongside his father and brothers was a highlight of his time in Gisborne.

His first game in the scarlet jersey was a pre-NPC clash with King Country in 2000, when he appeared alongside father Ron. Later that year, they became the first father-son combination to play together in a National Provincial Championship match — a 30-28 loss to East Coast.

He also played with his father and brother Willis in YMP’s 23-22 victory over Pirates in the Poverty Bay club rugby final in 2010.

Another highlight was being part of a successful Lochore Cup run for Poverty Bay in the mid-2000s.

The Lochore Cup playoffs involve the teams ranked fifth to eighth in the championship and, with their win over South Canterbury last Saturday, West Coast booked a home semifinal in this year’s edition.

Tamatea is probably playing his last year of representative rugby and Poverty Bay may well think playing against his old team is the ideal way for him to finish, coming almost full circle.

Tamatea, of course, hopes to play one more week after that . . . in the Lochore Cup final.