Who better to be crowned supreme champion at our fictitious 2012 Wairarapa-Bush Rugcademy Awards than Captain Courageous Kurt Simmonds?
The 25-year-old dairy farmer who played on for five minutes of the Meads Cup semifinal against Wanganui at Cooks Garden, Wanganui, last Saturday with a broken right arm typified the highlevel of commitment shown by a Wairarapa-Bush squad that won six of their nine Heartland championship games.
The injury requiring the insertion of a steel plate into his arm occurred about 15 minutes from the game's end when Simmonds tackled an opposing player.
"There was a bit of pain but not enough to come off so I played on for another five minutes or so," Simmonds recalled from his Wanganui Hospital bed yesterday morning.
"But I soon found I couldn't do a lot so it was time to go. It was a lot worse than I first thought."
As it happens, Wairarapa-Bush went on to lose to Wanganui 23-20 but Simmonds was "really rapt" with the strong showing against the defending champions and, typically, wasn't about to dwell on a couple of close calls that went against his side and might well have changed the end result.
"That's rugby isn't it," he said. "You'll always get the odd decision which goes against you and you just have to deal with it."
Simmonds puts the improvement made by Wairarapa-Bush in 2012 - they won just the one Heartland game the previous season - to the "amazing feeling" within the squad on and off the field of play.
"Everybody was working for each other, there was a really strong bond there," he said.
Pleasing too for Simmonds was the strong support given the squad from the local rugby fraternity.
"It was great to have so many fans cheering us on, some of the away games were more like home games in that respect. It helped the guys no end."
Broken arm and all, Simmonds is already looking forward to the 2013 season when he is adamant Wairarapa-Bush will launch an even stronger challenge for Meads Cup spoils.
"Quite frankly I can't wait to get out there again."
