Rugby: Taradale stalwart passes on mantle

Adele Wakely (left) is handing over the Taradale Rugby and Sports junior convener role to Moana Davis.

The matriarch of Taradale rugby, Adele Wakely, is easing up.

After 30 years as junior convener at the Taradale Rugby and Sports Club, Wakely, 83, has passed the role on to former Hawke's Bay Tuis representative and Taradale women's player Moana Davis.

"I will still be draw secretary and treasurer for the Intercity Junior Rugby Board and of course I will still be involved with the Wakely Shield tournament," Wakely said, referring to the 11-year-old annual under-50kg tournament which is named after her.

"I just couldn't handle the physical side of the convener job any more," Wakely explained.

A life member of the club, Wakely has been a behind-the-scenes toiler for junior rugby in the Bay and at her club since 1971. Four generations of her family are still involved with the Guppy Rd-based outfit and a great grandson is still an active player.

Wakely received national recognition for her service to the code when she collected the Volunteer of the Year award at the New Zealand Rugby Football Union's annual Steinlager Awards function for the 2004 season.

"I remember referee Buff Madden telling me then I could retire because I've got all my gongs. I told him I was determined to carry on for another 10 years ... I'm still going," she recalled.

"That award was great but the highlights of my time in rugby was cooking for four All Blacks [Eric Rush, Bull Allen, Justin Marshall and Blair Larsen] and catering for a crowd of 500, including the All Blacks and supporters, one year when the All Black trial was in Napier," Wakely, the Super Grans marching co-ordinator in Taradale, said.

It wasn't uncommon for Wakely to put in 25 and 30 hour weeks in her voluntary convener role.

"It will be different for Moana and her team with all the new technology available to them these days."

Wakely said she was grateful for the support she had received from the senior club and her son and fellow junior rugby stalwart Bazil Wakely.

"One of the keys to our success has been having our senior players work closely with our junior teams," she said.

A service centre manager for the Napier Work and Income office, Davis said one of the priorities for her eight-strong committee would be to initially maintain the number of junior players the club had last year, 380, and then build on them.

"We had 27 teams last year. It would be good to get back up to 30, the most there has been during Adele's time. We want Taradale to be the club of choice for junior rugby players in the province and we want to build on the family orientated nature of the organisation," Davis said.

Pulling on her marketing cap, Davis, the wife of former Magpies and Taradale winger Peter Davis, said the club's first junior weigh-ins will be held tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday.

"I've learned from Adele that it's good to have them early because if any players are over-weight they have plenty of time to shed it before the official weigh-in next month," Davis said.

A former New Zealand Development touch rep, basketballer, netballer, squash and rugby league player, Davis has also been the co-ordinator for the club's touch module. "It's exciting but at the same time I know I've got big shoes to fill," she said.