Magpies: Prop Joel Hintz retires after one too many head knocks

Joel Hintz in one of his proudest moments, hoisting the Ranfurly Shield as the Magpies step off the plane in Napier returning home after the 2020 shield challenge win over Otago in Dunedin. Photo / NZME

Hawke’s Bay Magpies prop Joel Hintz says his sudden retirement has come after one too many “head knocks”.

A Nash Cup club match for Central in front of the home Waipukurau crowd in April was the 28-year-old’s last game.

While he’d never been “knocked out”, there’d been several concussion issues over the years – which he attributes to tackles that morphed into “head-highs” due to his lack of height.

Hintz is a 1.78m package from Masterton and says his father Tim initially tried to encourage him to play halfback.

On doctor’s advice 10 weeks ago, Hintz decided to retire and take up coaching instead, as well as focus on the Napier franchise of MTF (Motor Trade Finance) he and wife Beka - “the boss” - bought last year.

The impact of head knocks on his rugby career is highlighted by just 91 appearances in professional leagues and for Hawke’s Bay in the eight years since he debuted for Canterbury in 2017.

Fellow Magpies prop Pouri Rakete Stones, as one example, has had about double the number of games over the same time period.

Retiring Hawke's Bay Magpies front-rower Joel Hintz with his new team at MTF, propped by Tori Little (left) and wife Beka. Photo / Doug Laing

Rugby wasn’t Hintz’s first focus, after heading south for Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) studies at Lincoln University.

Helped eventually by a rugby scholarship programme, he found himself part of a study, as a guinea pig in the first New Zealand trials of smart mouthguard technology that aimed to better warn of the head-knock risks to players.

The technology still has teething issues, as exposed in the Crusaders Super Rugby semi-final, when signals from the mouthguard chip may have confused which players needed to be pulled from the field for further assessment.

After Canterbury, he played all Wellington’s 11 NPC matches in 2018 and in 2019, and made the first of 63 appearances for the Magpies.

His proudest moment was beating Otago 28-9 in a Ranfurly Shield challenge in Dunedin on October 4, 2020, and being the player holding the trophy aloft exiting the aircraft when the team arrived back in Napier.

He played for South African side the Sharks as a short-term injury replacement in Europe-based competition the United Championship, for New England Freejacks in the North American Major League Rugby (MRL) and for Australian side the Western Force in Super Rugby Pacific.

He was also a wider training-squad player with the Hurricanes, but says he was never particularly fussed with Super Rugby.

All the games resulted in just one try, from a maul in a Magpies shield defence against Whanganui, but teammate Sam Smith reckons it was actually his.

However, Hintz notes on other occasions, he might have been denied the honours, as tries were credited to other players.

A separate claim to fame was his World Classic Powerlifting sub-juniors title won in South Africa in 2014, including a division World record squat of 260kg, which, with a press of 160kg and deadlift of 250kg, contributed to a World record total, at 670kg.

There are expected to be several new faces in the Magpies squad which faces pre-NPC hit-outs against Manawatū in Napier on July 18 and Waikato in Taupō a week later, ahead of the competition first-round match against Counties Manukau in Napier on August 3.

Hintz reckons the Freejacks will win the MLR final in the US this weekend.

He also gives Hawke’s Bay a chance of finally winning the NPC this year, for the first time in its 50 seasons.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.