Rugby: Fraser living boyhood dream

Steamers fullback Te Rangi Fraser (with ball) in action against Waikato this season. Photo / George Novak

Te Rangi Fraser set a goal when he was too small to make the Napier Boys' First XV to one day become a professional rugby player.

That journey to be one of the best attacking fullbacks in this year's ITM Cup has had plenty of pitfalls along the way, but the 24-year-old Bay of Plenty Steamers player has plenty to smile about how his career has blossomed this year.

He was a key member of the Bay of Plenty sevens team over the summer, set a record by scoring a try in every round of the Baywide club competition for his Whakarewarewa club, then scored one of the best individual efforts of the ITM Cup so far in the win over North Harbour.

But smiling was difficult for much of last winter after Fraser suffered a badly broken jaw against Taranaki, in just his second game for the Steamers.

"It was disappointing as I needed surgery and was a bit down," Fraser said.

"I wasn't contracted at that stage so when [Bay of Plenty CEO] Mike [Rogers] told me he wanted to contract me, it lifted my want to be back in there."

Fraser was raised in Napier, where cricket was his main game at school, with the talented allrounder making all the Hawke's Bay age group sides. He lived in Australia in his late teens before returning home in 2013, to play rugby for Ngati Porou East Coast under the coaching of former Steamers hooker Ngarimu Simpkins.

"He said to me it would be a good opportunity for me to go play in a decent club side in Rotorua [Whakarewarewa] and said 'you never know' as Bay of Plenty were struggling," Fraser said.

"He backed me 100 per cent that I could get a jersey with them if I played well enough.

"Coming from Ngati Porou and the pride they have in the sky blue jersey and the Maori culture, where you are not playing just any team but are playing for the whole iwi, going to Whaka was pretty much the same thing."

Fraser played his part in the Steamers' 37-26 win over Counties Manukau on Sunday scoring a try while, Whaka teammate Whaimotu Craft-Chemis also scored.

The one game this season Fraser has been quietly thinking about is the Ranfurly Shield challenge against Hawke's Bay in Napier on September 19.

"I want to go down there and show them, if I am given an opportunity, to take that shield from them and hold it high and say I can play rugby too. I have never given up on my dream and believed in myself I could do it."

-The Bay of Plenty Steamers play their next game at the Rotorua International Stadium this Saturday against Taranaki, at 5.35pm.