Authentic look at small-town rugby (+ video)

The Reporoa Rugby Club have been immortalised in a documentary

The fast and exciting times of the Reporoa Rugby Club have been immortalised in a documentary.

The Ground We Won from award-winning film-making team Christopher Pryor and Miriam Smith will premiere on April 18 at the New Zealand International Film Festival in Auckland.

The film follows the Reporoa Rugby Club A Team over their 2013 season, documenting their wins and losses, as well as life in Reporoa.

Reporoa dairy farmer Kelvin Thomas is one of the main characters in the documentary. He said the local rugby community was pleased with the outcome. "We were blown away, it is beyond our wildest expectations."

He said they soon got used to having a camera crew documenting their movements.

"It was different just having a camera around you all the time and at the games, but by the end it was just second nature for them to be there.

"We didn't even notice they were here."

Everything in the film was authentic, he said.

"There were a couple of times they missed out on something and wanted to recreate it but it never worked, so everything is just authentic."

He said the film may shatter preconceptions about the small community.

"The amount of footage they took they could have probably made 10 movies, and just tying it up into one story was the hardest part. They [the film makers] thought that Reporoa was a sleepy, quiet place to be, but when they got back to Auckland they found Auckland was boring and missed it here."

He urged people to see the film.

"Once we watched it we were just blown away. They had a pre-screening in Hamilton, and they had a mixture of people come and watch it; townies, rural people, rugby players, and they all liked it, they got it.

"It is just basically rugby and work, and how we congregate around the rugby club."