FINALLY: The sacrifices of the Meads Cup-winning, Wanganui rugby team will be recognised at long last.PHOTO/FILE
IT WILL be better late than never, but it sounds like finally the men who brought the 2015 Meads Cup back to Wanganui will receive their due next month.
Reading my 'Fonganui' column a fortnight ago, you may have picked up on the subtle undercurrent of disappointment that Jason Caskey and his crew, who in the past 12 months have made a lot of sacrifices with their time away from family and work, not to mention the burden of pressure, were not better received when they arrived back home with cup in tow on Labour Weekend Sunday in October.
Even the card games at the St Johns Club were evidently more important than the national amateur rugby champions, who had made an incredible feat by winning six straight road games on their way to the title, including three in the fortresses of the South Island's strongest Heartland unions.
In a letter to the Wanganui Chronicle, councillor Phillipa Baker-Hogan took her opportunity to have a dig at Visit Whanganui and Whanganui & Partners who "has not reached out to support the local union".
Rest assured, the former world champion rower penned, the WDC was working with the WRFU to "confirm a suitable day and time to congratulate our champions and invite the community to celebrate and meet the team".
That was two weeks ago, which in turn was over a week since the Cup had been won. Hardly prompt.
A call to the WRFU yesterday revealed the tentative plan now, still yet to be confirmed, is to include the team in the Christmas Parade and then an afternoon tea at Mint Cafe for the boys - at least those who will still be around given their lives which went on hold for the late winter and early spring must now be attended to, especially those with family overseas or working on their farms in the back country.
To my mind, the boat has been missed, and the better time to honour the team was last night at Cooks Gardens.
WRFU staff were not ultra-busy as the NZ Heartland XV vs Australian Barbarians international - just the biggest game held locally since 2013 - did not require the same level of activity as a Heartland Championship match, given there are fewer local sponsors signs to set up because the fixture is under the auspices of the NZRFU and ARU.
Therefore, how hard would it have been for the council to get their heads together with the union and the Cooks Gardens board to invite the Steelform Wanganui squad and their families to be the honoured guests at the game?
It's a gesture, with low costs, that the boys would appreciate, especially as they would have been eager to cheer on their five brothers who are in the Heartland lineup - Peter Rowe, Cole Baldwin, Bryn Hudson, Lindsay Horrocks and Stephen Perofeta.
It would have been a nice consolation as well for the glum Fraser Hammond, who would have been on the field if he had not fractured his hand in Tuesday evening's first international.
A presentation could have been made at half-time up in the corporate boxes, just after the halftime 2000m road race runners had left the track area before their course twisted back and returned to the ground.
With all respect to the Christmas Parade, it's a belated inclusion and the team will hardly be the draw-cards on the day. One float amongst many.
Being guests for a reunion during the international would have put them in front of their most loyal and knowledgeable supporters and in turn, as a group, they would certainly have been a vocal bunch cheering their fellows on the field - characters like big lock Sam Madams would have been right in his element.
A guy like Daniel Fitzgerald could have been given his due for risking shoulder surgery to play for his province, while a replay could have screened of that amazing 105m try in the final by Samu Kubunavanua - which was set up by his brethren in Michael Nabuliwaqe, Poasa Waqanibau, and the kick of Trinity Spooner-Neera - shortly followed by a quick interview with the four of them.
You know, Prime Minister John Key was in the All Blacks' changing shed within 20 minutes of their Rugby World Cup triumph - ostensibly to have yet another chat with Richie McCaw about accepting that Knighthood.
The welcome parades were likely planned and confirmed before the team had even changed into their formal No1s.
Locally, it appears the wheels are finally turning, but by jeeze a month after the fact is slow.