One of New Zealand’s smallest rugby clubs recently celebrated its 100th birthday – in the process defying rural-urban migration and the player drain to reach the milestone. Neil Reid soaked up the festivities at the Ruatoria City Sports Club and met some of the local legends and characters who have
Heartland rugby heroes: Ruatoria City - The big City that unites a small town
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They may sound like tall stories, but they’re all true. And they were shared with pride and a laugh, as well as the odd tear, when players who had worn the Ruatoria City jersey or supported the small club, gathered to celebrate its centenary on the East Coast.
Throughout three days of festivities at Whakarua Park – the spiritual home of East Coast rugby - two things shone through; how incredible it was that the club had managed to reach triple figures, and the fierce loyalty members had to the side’s black and yellow jerseys.
It is a loyalty that club stalwart David Goldsmith summed up by describing: “We are born City, we will die City”.
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That was a sentiment shared by one of the club’s truly great, Danny Poihipi.
The former prop was one of the toughest men to play on the East Coast during the 1970s – and a player widely regarded in the province as someone unlucky not to have made the All Blacks.
An emotional Poihipi said he had given “10 years of my heart to this club”.
“There were a lot of good times, fun times, very full of fun. The memories go back all the way.
“When I left here [Ruatoria], my heart was still here. And it is still connected to the City club ... living it, breathing it, walking it, diving it.
“I enjoyed all the seasonal break-ups where there would be cook-ups over the hill and on the beach. And those memories I hold very hard.”
In the 1950s, Ruatoria City was one of 20 rugby clubs on the East Coast. But urban drift, and work and family commitments has seen club numbers in the region dwindle to just seven clubs competing in 2022.
“Where are you sweetie?”
Time hasn’t dulled Poihipi’s memories of his introduction to Ruatoria City.
Soon after his arrival to the East Coast from the Bay of Plenty, he was approached by a small group of club members to go on a hunting trip for a pig to be killed and later served up as an after-match kai.
“I was asked, ‘Hey boy, what are you doing?’ Follow me’,” he recalled.
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The hunt ended up on a private section on the outskirts of Ruatoria.
Almost 50 years on, Poihipi can laugh about it now. But he wasn’t laughing when the crew had to hide in weeds after realising the pig they were in the process of killing was a domestic pet – called Sweetie – and being looked for by its near-blind owner.
“We all lay down in the wiwi [weeds] and this old gentleman is coming along and saying, ‘I can smell you Sweetie, you are here somewhere. I left you here this morning ... I am coming to see if you are alright’,” he said.
“Our pig was the one he was looking for. It was too late, we had put the knife in here [pointing to his neck].
“We just couldn’t stop the pig from squealing and the man was saying, ‘I can hear you Sweetie’.”
It wasn’t Poihipi’s only Ruatoria City pig-hunting mishap.
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On another mission he went on, a member of famous All Black George Nepia’s family misplaced a specially engraved watch.
The watch was initially attached to a tree.
But unbeknown to the timepiece’s owner, the tree was later “pushed” into a fire that had been lit so the hairs could be singed off the pig’s body.
“He said ‘I have lost my watch’. I said, ‘You hung it on a tree, there’s that tree in the fire’,” Poihipi said.
“We waited until the fire had died down, sorted our pig, and bugger me days the watch was there all burnt up. So, we had a tangi for that watch.”
‘Start walking like a duck’
Jack Higgins was one of the legends of both Ruatoria City and East Coast rugby from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s.
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Hang around the Ruatoria City clubrooms long enough and you’ll hear no shortages of tales from his career, which included 40 games for East Coast.
One of his best-remembered showings was the 1987 Ranfurly Shield challenge against Auckland at Eden Park. That day he famously marked All Black star John Kirwan and such was his staunch defence he kept him try-less in Auckland’s 72-0 win.
Higgins went on to play 40 games for East Coast until 1988, but continued playing for Ruatoria City in recent years well into his 50s.
And it was while playing for the club that tensions flared when his mate – who was also the head coach – decided he should miss a week to stay fit for the pending playoffs.
“Coaching can be tough and sometimes you have to take a lot of s***,” said club icon and then-head coach Jum Reedy. “And sometimes you have to stand down your own mates, like my mate Jack Higgins.
“We had lost our first two games but then won nine on the trot and were playing Hiku for the semi. We decided we would rest Jack and save him for the next week.”
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When asked by his assistant “Joe the Jerk” how he would get Higgins to agree to stand down, Reedy said he would put the back through a fitness routine he didn’t think he could pass.
“So I put him through a test running up and down [the field] and I go, ‘F***, he’s passing all the tests’,” Reedy recalled.
It was then that Reedy came up with what proved to be a foolproof plan to sideline his mate for a week and keep him fresh for the playoffs.
“I said, ‘Jack, get down like a duck and start walking like a duck’. I thought that would get him.
“So he got down like a duck and started walking like a duck, but he started to get pain. He said, ‘I have never seen any b****** walking like a duck on a f***ing paddock’.
“So I told him, ‘You have failed the test. We will have to stand you down’. And he goes, ‘F*** you Joe the Jerk, f*** you Jum Reedy, I am out of here ... I am out to poach a pig ... and get on the piss’.”
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Reedy said, with a cheeky smile, that the next week Higgins was fit to play.
Mum’s the word!
Māori All Blacks and Hurricanes star lock Isaia Walker-Leawere’s rugby career has taken him all around the world.
His global rugby journey has taken the Ruatoria-born 25-year-old to playing arenas in Australia, South Africa, the UK, South Africa, America, Chile and Brazil.
But there’s one ground that holds a special part in his heart: Ruatoria’s Whakarua Park.
It’s the ground where he watched his father, former Fiji captain Kele Leawere, in action many times for both Ruatoria City and East Coast. It’s also the ground that Walker-Leawere played much of his initial senior grade club rugby at - starting at the tender age of just 14.
And it was a debut that his mother - one of the off-field backbones of Ruatoria City, Leonie Walker - was furious to learn about.
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“Mum was out of town when I played.
“She was pretty angry when she found out. She had told everyone before she went out of town that no way was I allowed to play. But it was just too good a chance not to play with my uncles and mates.”
Walker-Leawere attended the three-day reunion, proudly wearing his Ruatoria City jersey during the festivities.
“This club means so much to me,” he said.
“I’m proud to have played for them at the start of my senior rugby career. This club means a lot to my family ... it’s special.”
Among the relatives he played alongside, before moving away from the East Coast to chase his rugby dream, is midfielder Graham Walker.
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Walker’s East Coast rep career spanned 1991-2005, and he was still playing club rugby for Ruatoria City in 2022.
‘Rugged’ treatment dished out to pioneering female administrator
The late Kath McLean dedicated decades of her life to both Ruatoria City and the then-named East Coast Rugby Union.
The “first lady” of East Coast rugby was fondly known on the East Coast as both “Nanny Kath” and “Aunty Kath”.
She was the fix-it lady so often for her club and province, taking on roles including secretary and treasurer, working the ticket office, and even hand-sewing logos on playing jerseys. And for much of her association, she was an unpaid volunteer.
During Ruatoria City’s celebrations, regular tributes were paid to McLean, including from Reedy who had heard of her early experiences around rugby while travelling with the East Coast team several decades ago.
“Back in those days it was predominantly a male arena. Nanny Kath would say that it was a rugged game for the women [to be around],” Reedy said.
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“She used to dress up in her blazer and her tie and go to the after-match functions. She used to get verbally abused, spat at and even have drinks thrown at her.
“That is some of the things Nanny Kath went through to uphold the mana of wāhine for our club.”
McLean went on to become a path-finder for women’s involvement in the administration of provincial rugby.
The Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Union has since had two female chief executives in Agnes Walker and Cushla Tangaere-Manuel.
Reedy said McLean would go on to have “the last laugh”.
Her dedication to administration and volunteering saw her being honoured by the International Rugby Board in 2001, when it flew her to Dublin and presented here with the IRB Chairman’s Award.
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Then-East Coast Rugby Union chief executive Anthony Nelson travelled to Dublin with McLean.
“My mate who went with her said when they caught the lift, two gentlemen jumped in, they saw Kath and they said, ‘Kath McLean, it is an honour to meet you’,” Reedy said.
“One of them was John Eales, the Australian captain who had just got the international player of the year and the other one was [Wallabies halfback] George Gregan.”
‘It really is the women who drive rugby on the Coast’
McLean’s legacy of strong women at Ruatoria City has continued with the likes of Leonie Walker, Ario Rewi, Lisa Muller and Kat Kaiwai.
The latter’s family is considered royalty at the small club, including her late father Dunn who, incredibly, made the North Island Under-16 team from Ruatoria City. He later moved to Wellington and played provincial rugby for them.
Kat Kaiwai said the importance of rugby to the East Coast community was ingrained in youngsters from an early age, regardless of their gender.
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That love of the game, and the fact there was no women’s competition in the province for so long, meant many women took up key off-field roles among clubs.
“I can pretty much, 99 per cent, say if there were less women up here doing what they are for rugby then the game would be in dire straits,” she said.
“It really is the women who drive rugby on the Coast.
“They are the ones that do the fundraisers, the ones that can go and seek the sponsorships, the ones who are coaching the JAB kids and getting their lunches ready and breakfasts in the morning, getting the uniforms sorted to make sure the kids are ready.
“The women are pretty much the managers of most of the teams. They are the ones doing the washing of their uniforms, organising the raffles for the men’s teams, the hosting of the after-matches...”
A four-team East Coast women’s competition was launched in 2022.
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And it was Kaiwai who signed on as one of the first financial backers of the Ngāti Porou East Coast women’s team, created in 2021, with the local roading firm she owns, Tairāwhiti Contractors, becoming a sponsor.
“It was an easy decision to help,” she said.
“It reminded me that I am in a male-dominated industry and I felt that the [rugby] men have already got everything, so if I could help in some way as a foundation sort of thing for the women to get started and have something, then I was always going to be happy to contribute.”
‘Nothing but a cheating b******’
The small number of referees on the East Coast have seen a volunteer from each opposing club regularly handling touch judge and assistant referee duties.
It is a role which Jum Reedy laughingly refers to as the “worst thing”; opening yourself up for criticism from opposition players and the very parochial fans aligned to East Coast club teams.
Reedy has had sideline commitments countless times over the decades, saying one of his worst moments came when his Ruatoria City won a tight game away to Hicks Bay.
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“Logie [first-five Ian Logan] had just come back from France, he was a bit of a sharp shooter over there ... he had all the skills,” Reedy recalled.
“We got ahead after a penalty kick from Logie. Everyone had been standing behind the posts and T-Bone [former East Coast centre Tyrone Delamere], a big stalwart up at Hicks Bay, is standing in front of me and he goes, ‘Jum what is this fella like?’.
“I said, ‘They call him the Beaudine in France’. He asked what that was and I told him it was sharp shooter in French.
“Anyway, he kicks it and they all say he missed. But my flag goes up and the ref says goal and I keep running away. T-Bone comes to me and says, ‘You are nothing but a cheating b******’. I just said, ‘He’s the sharp shooter’.
“He goes, ‘I don’t care what they call him in France, but I am calling you, in Hick’s Bay, a f***ing cheat’.”
‘Having to pull guys out of sheds still drinking from the night before’
Ian Logan knows better than most how tough it can be to secure a grassroots club starting 15 in the professional era.
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Raised on the East Coast, the first-five moved to Manawatū in a bid to chase a pro rugby dream in the early 2000s.
But after becoming disillusioned with rugby in Manawatū, he returned to his home province and was quickly promoted to player-coach for Ruatoria City in his early 20s.
“We’re a whānau-based club. But it has had its struggles,” Logan said.
“When I came back from Manawatū, I was one of the youngest players and I was coach and captain.
“I was having to pull guys out of sheds still drinking from the night before, at 2.15pm, trying to get them to come and fill in for us. It was a bit of an eye-opener coming back.”
Low player numbers also forced Ruatoria City to withdraw from the Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Union’s club competition three years ago.
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During the season-long hiatus, the focus was on ensuring by the time City’s centenary rolled around, they would be in a stronger position.
And it worked. Pride in the club has seen player numbers grow and the side narrowly missed the 2022 final. The club also had 90 registered junior players last year.
“The club has just come on in leaps and bounds,” said Logan – who was also co-coach in 2022.
“And it is not just the players on the field, it’s the people in the bar making sure the club is ticking over and all the ladies who do the work in the kitchen ... they are just as important [as the players] in keeping this club open.”
Like all other clubs on the East Coast, Ruatoria City is based around local hapū marae.
Those staunch family links meant ery few players swapped clubs during their career.
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“Sometimes your whānau won’t let you back in the door if you go and play for another club,” Logan said.
‘A few rucks and hair pulls’
One of the rare players to swap clubs was hard-hitting loose forward Tanetoa Parata.
A member of the 2012 Meads Cup-winning Ngāti Porou East Coast team, Parata shocked family and the Hikurangi club when he transferred to Ruatoria City in 2021.
Having played 104 games for Hikurangi – the perennial club competition favourites – he decided to finally follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, Ron Parata, in wearing City colours.
His former team-mates – including relatives – shared their disapproval of the decision with words - and physical action the first time he played against them for Ruatoria City.
“It was real tough when I came up against them,” Parata said.
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“There were a few rucks and hair pulls here and there.
“The people who had brought me up through Hiku, and for me to play against them, it is real tough. It’s hard to play against family.”
Parata’s goal is to finish his career by reaching 100 games for Ruatoria City, to go along with his 104 for Hikurangi, as well as 50 matches for Ngāti Porou East Coast.
He didn’t hesitate when asked what made his new club so special, saying: “It is the welcoming vibe”.
“I have given these fellas s*** my whole life [when I was at Hiku], but since coming over here they have made me feel so welcome and made me feel at home. And they welcome everyone that comes through its doors.”
>> Tragedy struck on the third day of Ruatoria City’s centenary when former East Coast rep Robert Tuari collapsed and died shortly after running on the field during a commemorative match at Whakarua Park. Just hours later, Ngāti Porou East Coast beat Mid Canterbury in the Lochore Cup final at the ground, after Tuari’s whānau wanted both the Lochore Cup final and the centenary celebrations to continue.
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