NZ’s most remote rugby team gets into top Gear
Nga¯ti Porou East Coast went another year without winning in the Heartland Championship, but their last season had the Coast’s rugby community abuzz. Now one of their own, former All Blacks wing Hosea Gear, has returned home from France to coach New Zeala
There is a joke running wild around the East Coast’s long but spectacular coastline — and it’s told with glee from Te Kaha to Tolaga Bay. ‘‘We’re becoming an ex-All Black magnet,’’ East Coast Rugby CEO Cushla Tangaere-Manuel said.
‘‘We just need a current All Black to sign with us now.’’
Former All Blacks wing Zac Guildford initially thought ‘‘hell no’’ when asked if he wanted to play for the Nga¯ ti Porou East Coast rugby team, who haven’t won a game in the Heartland Championship since beating Poverty Bay 22-18 at their Ruatoria home, Whakarua Park, on September 28, 2013.
But Guildford was intrigued by the prospect of representing New Zealand’s most isolated provincial team – one that’s unique because they’re iwi-based – so he joined on loan this year and plans to pull on the sky blue jersey again.
‘‘Once you get there and put on the jersey, it becomes an addiction and you just want more,’’ Guildford said.
Hamilton-based Guildford even relished the greatest challenge East Coast must contend with – an insane travel schedule – as players this year journeyed by plane, bus and car from as far as New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Wellington.
While their losing streak increased to 50 matches – a record in the national provincial championship (NPC) – the attraction of playing for East Coast seems stronger than ever and one of their own, former All Blacks wing Hosea Gear, is coming home.
Gear, who played 14 tests from 2008-12, left the Chiefs for France in 2015, but finished playing two years later, turning to coaching with third division French club Ce´ ret Sportif, and the 35-year-old is returning to his roots as head coach on a two-year contract.
East Coast is one of New Zealand’s largest regions and most of its sparse population (of approximately 6000) are obsessed with rugby. Tangaere-Manuel was struggling to keep quiet once word of Gear’s return was out.
‘‘It’s a relief to have it announced because I was tired of whispers down alleys and in supermarkets: ‘is it true?’,’’ she said.
The majority of East Coast’s squad are Ma¯ ori with whakapapa ties to the region’s Nga¯ ti Porou iwi, so the team still adopts traditions like staying in their marae before home games and performing their own haka before every match.
Although Gear was born and bred in Gisborne, and played for fierce rivals Poverty Bay before his professional career took off with the Hurricanes in 2004, his mother hails from Tolaga Bay and his family still live there. His great grandmother is from Ruatoria.
Gear and his elder brother Rico, another former All Blacks wing from 2004-07, each have intricate tattoos on their right forearms dedicated to one another and their Nga¯ ti Porou tribe.
Family was a big part of Gear’s decision to return from France and his duties as coach are well underway after his appointment this month.
‘‘The response has been truly overwhelming. I’ve received more comments and messages than I did when I made the All Blacks,’’ Gear said.
‘‘That just goes to show how proud everyone is of East Coast and it’s just awesome.’’
Gear will check out club rugby once the season starts in March, but his arrival has sparked a recruitment drive for a team chasing a win beneath Mount Hikurangi, the sacred mountain of Nga¯ ti Porou. It’s one of the world’s first mountains to see the sunrise each day, but it’s not seen a home win since 2013.
One name whistling off the waves around the East Coast is Nehe Milner-Skudder, but the chances of seeing the 13-test All Black in sky blue sooner rather than later are remote as he recovers from a long-term shoulder injury.
The 2015 Rugby World Cup winner is of Nga¯ ti Porou descent. His mother, Heneriata Milner, lives in Tokomaru Bay and is the principal at Ruatoria’s Ngata College.
The Sunday Star-Times understands MilnerSkudder trained with East Coast last season as part of his rehabilitation. The 28-year-old wing is bound for wealthy French club Toulon next year, providing he recovers from his shoulder problem.
Nevertheless, Milner-Skudder is staying in New Zealand until he feels fully recovered and the temptation will be there if he wants to represent his iwi. If not next year, then it seems certain MilnerSkudder will one day pull off his trademark sidestep
New East Coast coach Hosea Gear
in sky blue. ‘‘I’ve got a sack of kina waiting for Nehe, he just needs to say the word,’’ Gear said.
It’s reminiscent of their glory years from 1999-2001 when players of Nga¯ ti Porou descent returned home. East Coast, the country’s smallest rugby union, rose from the depths of the NPC’s old third division and only fell at the final hurdle in a fairytale bid for promotion to the first division.
But rule changes in 2003 meant East Coast could no longer recruit as many players from outside their borders and Heartland teams today can have just three loan players if they’re not signed up to the union by June 1. Aside from winning the Heartland Championship in 2012, a year after losing the final, East Coast have struggled since.
Guildford and former Taranaki captain Mitchell Crosswell were two loanees last season, but getting players involved in club rugby and registered by June 1 is difficult because of a lack of job opportunities along the coast, so most of the squad live and work in Gisborne, a challenging two-hour drive from the union’s base in Ruatoria. Heartland rugby players are not paid but basic expenses – namely travel – are covered by the unions and New Zealand Rugby, so Gear will be challenged with getting a team together, but he said there are no excuses.
‘‘We’ve always tried to make the best of what we have,’’ he said. ‘‘Obviously the travel and lack of training time [are challenging] but that’s just how it is when you live two or three hours apart.
‘‘The thing that makes this team special and
‘‘I’ve received more comments and messages than I did when I made the All Blacks.’’