Rugby: New goal is real success

Frano Botica began practising his kicking in earnest only after he switched to rugby league - he wishes he started during his rugby days. Photo / Photosport

After a couple of post-retirement false starts, Frano Botica is establishing himself in the real estate world.

Frano Botica was one of New Zealand's most successful converts from rugby to league, and now he's set himself the task of learning another game which can be just as competitive - real estate.

Botica played seven tests and 20 games for the All Blacks before switching to league in 1990 and he enjoyed a fine career with English side Wigan and earned seven caps for the Kiwis. He now sells for Harcourts on the North Shore.

While he's grown used to the looks of recognition he gets from more seasoned house hunters, the 51-year-old is realistic about his star appeal with the younger generation.

"They don't know me from a bar of soap," he laughs. "But that's all good. The older ones are the ones who have the houses."

Botica says the work ethic he learned as a player is relevant to selling houses.

"It takes dedication and just being consistent," he says. "It's like with rugby. If you want to be good, you've got to do all the training.

"Real estate is the same. It's about your contacts and being in touch with them, promoting yourself, just doing the same thing over and over."

That method of repetitiveness helped Botica to become one of the most prolific goal kickers in Wigan's history. However, the absence of that approach was partly responsible for his switch to league.

Despite possessing scintillating skills as a running first-five, Botica lacked the kicking game to break into the All Blacks' starting side ahead of the metronomic Grant Fox.

"The only regret I have is that I didn't practise goal kicking a bit earlier," he says. "I was dabbling in it but I wasn't practising like Foxy used to practise. I only started doing that when I played league."

While circumstances may have forced him into his move, he came to love league and life in the north of England.

"I enjoyed league mainly because I was able to have a go and take people on. If I got caught, I just had to play the ball. It suited me, actually."

Like many former athletes, Botica found the adjustment from player to worker difficult.

"It was a challenge getting a nine-to-five job. I think that's a challenge for a lot of people - finding a job that suits you and the lifestyle you're used to living.

"I had a few businesses which I'd bought as I went along which, in hindsight, were not the greatest investments. So I was thinking along the right lines as far as what to do at the end of it but I just picked the wrong businesses."

Botica feels he's found a natural home in real estate.

"It's great to be involved in it. I'm getting there slowly but surely, so I'm happy with where I'm at."

As with rugby and league, the challenge in real estate is in getting yourself established as one of the big names.

"Some of them make it look easy, even though they do a lot of hard work," he says of his competitors.

It's a description that could easily have applied to Botica as a footballer.