Rugby: Wasps still sting in tale of great club

For almost 30 years it was the team everybody wanted to play for.

Colin Meads, Brian Lochore, Kel Tremain and Ian Kirkpatrick - just some of the greats to have pulled on the black and gold jersey of the Rotorua-based Wasps Rugby Football Club.

Between 1964 and 1991 Wasps' annual Easter Sunday games showcased the best players in New Zealand rugby. So to mark the club's 50th jubilee, Rotorua rugby historian Brent Drabble has compiled a book that commemorates those Easter matches - plus a few more.

The Wasps club was formed in 1962, the brainchild of former Bay of Plenty selector/coach Bill Girling-Butcher. It's members were former Bay of Plenty players and administrators and from the beginning its main purpose was to foster rugby in the Bay of Plenty.

"The Wasps used to go around all the high schools, fellas like Bill Gray, Frank Shelford, all these well-known players, and play the First XV and they would stop during the game and point out to the boys what they should be doing and how they should be doing it," said Drabble. "That's what Wasps were all about - teaching the young ones."

In 1964, the committee had the idea for an Easter match and the club captain selected a Wasps lineup made up of current All Blacks.

"They wrote to those players via their unions and they all started accepting to come and it became a huge drawcard," said Drabble.

By the end of the 1960s the games, often against the star-studded Waikato Harlequins, were attracting crowds of up to 10,000 and selection was considered a huge honour.

"Sometimes when the teams were picked the secretary would get a call from someone who hadn't got in saying they were available to play but why have they missed out," he said.

"Then fellas like Meads, Lochore and Kirkpatrick all wrote to the club one year apologising that they couldn't play in this year's Easter game because they were committed to being with the All Blacks."

The final Easter match was against the North Auckland Vikings.

"In 1991, professionalism was starting so all of a sudden we didn't have an Easter game anymore because we couldn't get the top players, they weren't allowed to come and play for the Wasps so that more or less killed the Easter Sunday game.

"After that last game I thought I better write all these things out, I had all the programmes and I have a set of almanacs so I went through and got everyone's proper initials. I thought I better put it all into an exercise book." That eventually turned into two exercise books which have now formed the basis of the book, compiled by Drabble with the help of Matthew Shaw. The teams, scorers and referees for each match are listed along with notes on the crowd, weather and match highlights. There is also a photo of each year's programme cover and centre page.

Wasps has about 220 members and continues to support rugby in the province through its fundraising efforts. In recognition of that, the Bay of Plenty senior side still play at least one pre-season game a year as the Wasps, wearing the black strip.

Although it's at the printers, Drabble hopes to have a copy of the book ready to show his fellow Wasps at tomorrow's golden jubilee luncheon.