The 1987 Te Awamutu Sub-Union side, Peter Northey is in the middle of the middle row.
Waikato rugby #834 Peter “Pete” Northey played a lot of rugby in the Te Awamutu area but it was teaching that originally brought him to the town.
Northey started playing rugby before the age of 9 in the 1960s.
He went on to attend Tongariro High School, playing three years of First XV rugby.
“Taumarunui Club and High School, Ōwhango are the teams I remember playing against at school on a Saturday,” Northey says.
“We weren’t that strong but had quite a useful team. We would always travel across to play at Taumarunui. We hardly ever had a home game and would have to go there every weekend.”
At First XV level, they faced teams from the likes of Taupō-nui-a-Tia College, Rangitahi College, Whakatāne School and Howick College.
After high school, Northey moved to Hamilton to study teaching at the University of Waikato.
This led to playing for the University Colts rugby team alongside Sir Wayne Smith.
Once he was qualified, his next stops were Mt Maunganui and Rotorua (Kahukura Rugby & Sports Club) before the eventual move to Te Awamutu.
“I got a job at Te Awamutu College teaching Maths in 1986,” Northey says.
“I played four years for Te Awamutu Old Boys. We had a pretty useful squad. We had the Livingstone brothers, [Dave and Michael] and Dallis Boyd.
“We had the Semmens brothers, [Doug and Steve]. There was Greg Ruscoe at fullback, and Dick Adam played his first couple of years there. My first coach in ‘86 would have been Kiwi Searancke and he was a bloody good guy, a good prop and a good coach.”
After several years of Bay of Plenty club rugby, Northey had always wanted to rep rugby - especially after getting a taste with the Harlequins in 1982.
In his first season with Te Awamutu, it happened.
“My parents lived over in Tauranga, so I went over there for the May holidays. Waikato must have rung Kiwi and they wanted me to come to training. So, I went to training in Cambridge.”
Hamilton’s Rugby Park was the home of Northey’s debut match, a narrow 12-11 loss to North Auckland.
“I went on during the second half and that was my debut for Waikato,” he says.
“North Auckland were pretty strong at that stage. They had Warren “The Boot’ Johnston. He kicked four penalties. He just kicked everything, he had a huge boot on him.”
That was Northey’s only appearance on the pitch for the senior side other than a match against Thames Valley.
He reserved for Waikato at least two more times but didn’t get on the paddock.
But he still played plenty of rugby in the red, yellow and black stripes. Northey played two years for Waikato B, captaining the side in his second season.
Usually a No 8, Northey remembers playing lock against Auckland B at Eden Park.
“A guy called Frank Bunce scored a try from halfway. We were good, but they were just too good.”
Spending three years in the Waikato Māori side, Northey was part of the team that beat their Bay of Plenty counterparts at Tūrangawaewae - the “first time for many a year”.
After four years with Te Awamutu Old Boys, Northey moved on to coach the 1990 Te Awamutu College First XV.
The College side, containing former King Country reps Regan Berryman and Michael Blank, won 14 games and drew one, scoring 359 points and conceding just 145.
They also went on a successful three-match tour of the South Island, beating Nelson College (9-3), Marlborough Boys’ College (33-0) and Christchurch’s Catholic Cathedral College (30-20)
Northey has several career highlights, mainly around his time in Te Awamutu, including his first game for Waikato and playing for the Te Awamutu Sub-Union during their late 1980s Peace Cup tenure.
“We had a very experienced Peace Cup team with some youngies thrown in there. We went to Tauranga in 1987, they had a very stacked team and we beat them on their own park,” Northey reminisces.
“I scored a try under the sticks at the end and they were very sour about the whole game.
“Then we took it back to TA and held it for several years. We had quite a strong team at home.”
Those teams included the likes of Waikato reps Wayne Annan, Selwyn Hohepa, Rex Robinson and Doug Semmens as well as an Argentinian prop Juan Pairetti.
“Selwyn Hohepa, in my opinion, was the equal of or better than two Bay of Plenty players I played with - in Rotorua, Rhys Ellison and in Tauranga, Ged Fitzgerald.”
Keith Nicol and the Wolfsbauer brothers were also very good players, while the coach, Barry Fletcher, was also a teacher at the college.
Northey says he was “a top guy and coach”.
“I really enjoyed my time in TA, it obviously helped me play rep games.”
He wasn’t the only rep rugby player in his family; two of his brothers also got provincial call-ups.
Syd played for Bay of Plenty in 1972, followed by Waikato in 1973 and New Zealand Universities in 1974, while younger brother John played lock for King Country (1981) and Bay of Plenty (1983).
Their father loved rugby and all five boys played the sport.
“We like our rugby,” Northey says.
“Some were just luckier than others I suppose.”
Northland became Northey’s next home and it’s where he has stayed for the past three decades.
He played several seasons for Kamo before retiring in 1993, and then marrying Marg Dunning in 1994.
Marg is the daughter of Brian Dunning, a former New Zealand cricketer and Northern Districts rep for almost two decades.
The couple have three daughters: Cait, a dairy farmer, Sian, a physio, and Bri, who is a doctor at Tauranga Hospital and moving to Middlemore for further training.
Rugby still runs in the Northey family, as Sian is the physio for the Waitomo Group, Waikato Farah Palmer Cup squad and part of the Gallagher Chiefs physio team.
Now based just south of Whangārei in Maungakaramea, Northey has taught at Dargaville High School and Whangārei Girls’ High School for many years.
“My wife and I have four hectares of land, where we have some cows, are raising calves for the first time this year, and some alpacas,” he says.
“I plan to finish [teaching] this year. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done, but you can’t teach forever.
“I’ve been a teacher, a head of department, assistant principal and a deputy principal. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done in my life.”