Lions test debut for ex-local lad

A rugby player remembered in Wairarapa as a young boy who spent from daylight to dusk kicking goals from the lawn of his family home at Lake Ferry is to make his test debut against the mighty Springboks later today.
Riki Flutey will be the first New Zealand-born player in over 100 years to pull on the scarlet jersey of the British and Irish Lions when he runs out on to Coca Cola Park, Johannesburg, in an effort to avenge two narrow tests defeats on this tour, by a third test victory.
The former Hurricanes utility back was born in Wairarapa and is an old boy of Pirinoa School.
He and his brother Mano are well remembered in the small Lake Ferry township for the hours they put in practicing goal kicking, aiming to clear the crossbar of goalposts put up for their benefit by their dad Whana Flutey.
Riki Flutey went to Te Aute College and has the distinction of having played against a touring Lions side - as a replacement for Wellington in 2005 - and for them on this tour of South Africa.
He becomes only the second player in history to play both for and against the Lions with the only other player being Tom Reid, an Irishman who played a test for the Lions in South Africa in 1955 and four years later lined up against the Lions playing for Eastern Canada.
Although Flutey is the first New Zealand born player in a century to play for the Lions, he is not the first in history.
In 1908 Kiwi Pat McEvedy played five tests on two tours with the Lions in Australia and New Zealand before returning to his native land and became president of the Wellington Rugby Union and then the New Zealand Rugby Union.
Flutey's many relatives in Wairarapa are planning to sit up and watch the Lions test live.
A cousin, Nathan Couch, said the extended family is very proud of him and wish him the best of luck with his test debut.
He said ironically the two leading lights to have come out of Wairarapa in recent times, Zac Guildford and Riki Flutey, have both followed very similar paths having played their earlier rugby in Wairarapa and to have moved to Hawke's Bay for their secondary schooling before playing for the Hurricanes.