100 Years of Bay Rugby: Clayton McMillan's memories

Today Clayton McMillan is one of a number of former players who will be on hand to celebrate 100 years of Bay of Plenty rugby.
The resilient No8 played 113 games for the Steamers, scoring 22 tries. And he still remembers the first time he pulled on the jersey, in 1995, that he would cherish and hold for eight years.
"I guess I was pretty lucky, I'd been involved with Gordon Tietjens' colts side and when he was re-promoted to the Steamers coach, he promoted about a half a dozen of us from the colts team to the Steamers. So that was awesome.
"I remember my first game was against Waikato at the old Waikato Stadium. We lost but we acquitted ourselves pretty well. So yeah it was a good day."
McMillan is the third player from Whakarewarewa to have played more than 100 games for Bay of Plenty, with Jim and Manu Maniapoto the other two. He is one of 16 centurions for Bay of Plenty.
Bay of Plenty Rugby Union historian Brent Drabble said McMillan was a great Whaka and Bay player who could have played for the Maori All Blacks.
"He was a great leader and proud of the blue and gold jersey. He was unlucky not to get to the chance to wear the Maori jersey."
McMillan, who played most of his Bay games at No8, started his career on the side of the scrum but said he was kept out of that position by another great Bay player.
"I'd been an openside flanker at club rugby. But there was a pretty good one running around at the time - Brett Sinkinson - who played a number of games for the Bay and went on to play for Wales. He was a standout player in the early days when I started playing.
"Obviously Tiet saw something in me as a No8 and that's where I played probably 99 per cent of my games for the Bay," he said.
"I captained 55 games so almost half the games I managed to lead the boys out, so I'm pretty proud of that achievement."
The father of two said being part of the Steamers outfit was special.
"I think the Bay has always been a family-orientated team and I don't think it's changed too much," McMillan said.
"Certainly back in the day we were probably under-resourced. We just didn't have the luxuries that a lot of the other teams, particularly some of the heavyweight teams, had at their disposal.
"One of the [ways] we could look to be better than the other teams was [by] being close knit and family-orientated."
McMillan said it was interesting to see the current team still had that sort of team spirit.
"I always try and keep an active eye out on how [the Steamers] are going, whether they are winning or losing," he said.
"It's certainly great to see them get off to a good start this year and if they continue on in that vein we might see them playing in the final which would be fantastic in a centenary year."
The former captain said one of the highlights of his time in the blue and gold jersey was when the team was promoted back to the first division in the old competition.
"We'd been battling away in the second division for quite some time and it was difficult to win that competition really with teams there or thereabouts.
"That was a big day and then the first game the following year we actually got promoted and we won our first game back in the first division in the Cake Tin in Wellington against a pretty good Wellington side. It was justification that we deserved to be there."
He said it sent a message to the rest of New Zealand that the Bay had arrived and were back up where they deserved to be.
McMillan, who spent some time playing rugby overseas before coaching Whaka, the Bay of Plenty under-20s, and managing the Steamers, is currently coaching Marist St Patricks in Wellington as well as working with the police.
However he hasn't ruled out returning home to Rotorua.
"Always keen to come home. So just making the most of an opportunity down here [in Wellington] but beyond this year the doors are still open."
Today's ITM Cup game between Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay kicks off at 5.35pm at Rotorua International Stadium.