Rugby: Captain's actions speak words

Clive captain and hooker Jorian Tangaere on the job as an announcer at Radio Kahungunu. Photo / Paul Taylor

It's true... Clive captain and hooker Jorian Tangaere is a radio announcer during his spare time.

Some Hawke's Bay club rugby fans might find this hard to believe as Tangaere, 21, doesn't say much on the field. He tends to let his actions do the talking and he leads by example.

However, the former Hawke's Bay under-20s rep could be heard congratulating his K9 Petfoods Clive team after their 20-8 win against MAC at Flaxmere Park on Saturday. It was the second win of the season for the visitors and their first in seven games.

"That win turned our season around. We needed it and I was happy with everyone's performances," Tangaere said before his daily stint on his kapa haka show for Radio Kahungunu.

Tangaere, who is also a third year Sport and Recreation course student at EIT, wasn't short on incentives as he produced a player-of-the-match performance to become the eighth weekly winner as the battle for the Tui-Hawke's Bay Today Club Rugby Player of the Year award continued.

"Dad [former Magpies hooker John Tangaere] who is living in Wellington these days is a former MAC player so I was pretty keen to text him about a win in our favour. My main goal is to make the Magpies team for those early Ranfurly Shield defences in July so hopefully this sort of form helps."

"We should have won the week before when we played Havelock North. But we went off the boil during the final quarter and lost 27-17. It was good to put in an 80 minute performance against MAC," Tangaere said.

The Te Aute College old boy is in his fourth season of premier play and second as captain. He is also in his second season as a member of the Magpies wider training group.

"Last year I had to pull out after the Magpies trial in Waipukurau to have surgery on an eye injury. This year I'm trying to have 10 minutes every now and then at loosehead prop to try and enhance my versatility but we don't have a lot of depth in the hooking position at Clive," Tangaere explained. Although Tangaere, who boasts a Bachelor of Arts degree from EIT on his academic CV, played 12th grade rugby for Hastings Rugby and Sports he didn't get serious about the code until his final two years of secondary school. Until then waka ama had been his main sport since the age of seven.

"I still do a little bit of waka ama in the summer but rugby is an an all-year round thing these days. It has to be ... I want to at least reach the standard Dad did."