Robert Thommo Thompson has played for both the Maori All Blacks and the Wallabies and is launching a book next Friday at Kahukura Club entitled A Bob Each Way. Photo/Stephen Parker
Robert "Tommo" Thompson was such a little fella he became a jockey the day he walked out of Boys' High - his 15th birthday.
A few rides on and he began to balloon to All Black proportions, his horse trainer dad was ecstatic - he couldn't wait for his boy to swap the saddle for the country's most sacred of jerseys.
At 21, Tommo obliged, pulling on the Maori All Blacks strip complete with silver fern, going on to make history by trading black for the Wallabies gold and green. It's generally accepted he was the first New Zealander to have represented both Maori and the Wallabies.
This Friday the eve of the Maori ABs - British and Irish Lions International Stadium clash, he's launching a book based on those glory days when he hooked in both countries' colours. At the suggestion of a humorist mate it's entitled A Bob Each Way.
All up, he played two tests, 21 games for his Maori 'kin'; 28 for the Aussies, three scoring him test caps.
Note that word 'kin', Tommo's the first to admit he's nowhere near a full-blown Maori. He reckons he only made a trial side after a selector who'd watched him in full flight for the Bay inquired about his heritage.
"I said 'my mother's a Parkinson from Opotiki so I guess I've got a little bit of tar,' it was enough to get me picked for the Northern Maoris to play in the Prince of Wales Cup. That was a bit of a buzz, my parents were there after the game when the main Maori team was announced; it was the only time I saw my father with a tear in his eye."
Tommo's rugby days began with JAB rugby, but his tiny frame was against him; he returned to his first love, horses.
"I was riding since I was 5 when Dad signed me up for the Rotorua Hunt Club. I had this little grey Shetland pony, Inky, Stewart Edward [local dentist] had one too, we led the parades."
With his jockey career aborted, he joined Archers Auto Springs. "I was on the furnaces, did a lot of hammering, that got me fit. Bert [Archer] bought me this Mini but Dad wouldn't let me drive it, he said 'if you want to be an All Black you've got to run to work, run home, you don't get hard unless you run'."
Initially Tommo joined St Michael's but switched to Kahukura under coach Jim Walsh.
"I was playing number 8 but Jim said there aren't many fast hookers around so I went into the front row, played hooker all my life, the hooker has to be the most intelligent player on the field, look who've become captains."
Picked for the Bay, Tommo's fitness regime ramped up.
"Alan McNaughton [former All Black] and I trained our butts off, ran up the mountain [Ngongotaha] rain, hail or shine, Christmas Day, New Year's Day."
In 1968 disaster struck, his leg was smashed in a 1969 Kahukura - Ngongotaha clash.
"The carnival was over, my whole world fell down, the surgeon Peter Tapsell [a former Maori All Black vice-captain], wanted to take it off however his mate Minir Kadri (Our People August 26, 2011) said he could save it but I'd never play again."
Tommo sidelined? He had to be kidding. Less than two years on he was playing across the Tasman.
By then he'd married long-time girlfriend Jenny Brown, sailing off to see the world.
"We could only afford to go to Perth, Bruce Eagar, a Rotorua mate, met us at the ship, introduced me to his club, Western Suburbs."
Western Australia scooped Tommo up. A televised game against a South African side drew attention from Australia's eastern seaboard. "I guess it was because I'd kicked five penalties, scored a try."
He received the call to play in Brisbane for the junior Wallabies against the tourists, selection for the national team in the second test followed.
Here comes a true Tommo story if ever there was one.
Brisbane was foreign territory to him, he'd gone walkabout, become lost, hadn't a clue about his selection.
"Eventually this reporter got hold of me, said l'd been picked for the second test, I said 'mate, if you're bull*****ing me I'll punch your bloody lights out'."
The journo wasn't bull*****ing. "There'd been this newspaper headline 'test hooker named but missing'."
By the time Tommo caught up with the team it was in Sydney and he'd missed the first training run. Regardless, he reckons he had a good game.
"A man has to hold his end up but I missed the next one because I was battered, bruised, punched, had the s*** beaten out of me."
Despite the pummelling the Wallabies wanted him back in their jersey.
"I had to move to Sydney, was playing for Northern Suburbs when it won the premiership, all up I played three tests, 28 games for Oz. It's quite unique in a way because nowadays contracts mean you can only play for one country."
Tommo's international playing days ended in 1973 when he and Jenny joined her parents in the Sultanate of Oman.
"It was an amazing place, full of gold and corruption."
The Thompsons stayed three years, Tommo set up a local rugby club while managing an import company.
"There were two other Kiwis, my brothers-in-law, Brits, Aussies, the Air Force used to fly us to games."
After 11 years marriage Jenny became pregnant. "We came home, I wanted to have a Kiwi kid."
Tommo's love of rugby's never waned but don't get him started on today's professionalism.
"I hate it, money's changed it all, I have a receipt for my expenses during a Springbok series, $26.52 for three weeks, now it would be millions a year."
ROBERT 'TOMMO' THOMPSON
Born: Rotorua, 1947.
Education: St Michael's Primary, Rotorua Intermediate, Boys' High.
Family: Widower (wife Jenny died eight years ago), son, daughter, one granddaughter, three grandsons. "They play for Kahukura."
Interests: Family, rugby "I've taken quite a few supporter groups overseas, including 20 Bledisloe Cups." "I have the odd bet on the gees-gees but never bet on a rugby game." "A bit of telly, there's amazing stuff on the History Channel."
Countries toured: New Zealand "Provincial sides in '72 Wallabies' tour.", South Africa three times, France, Fiji, Tonga, America, Canada "playing in a snowfall", Malaysia.
On Rotorua rugby: "It's gone downhill dramatically since it became Tauranga-based. We've got this magnificent stadium that never gets used properly."
Personal philosophy: "To wake up every day is a beautiful day."