Grassroots rugby: ‘Uncle Jack’ holds Puni together
Jack Kani is Jack the Lad, Jack of All Trades . . . and the heart and soul of Counties’ Puni Rugby Club
You can leave Puni, but you will always look back to see how they are going. In 2014, I was retired but I knew I was bullsh**ting. Jack Kani
Don’t you worry about those venerable front-rowers.
They’ll just keep playing. Like former All Black Richie Guy, who was still going for his Waipu club at 60, albeit in reserve grade.
Like Jack Kani, widely known as “Uncle Jack”, who is 57 but not averse to getting through a full 80 minutes for his beloved Puni club.
You may have heard of it, in rural Counties Manukau, not far out of Pukekohe en route to Waiuku.
Sonny Bill Williams is linked to Puni, which fields one Premier 3 side, plus two junior teams.
The story of Puni, which blows out
75 candles in November — how many clubs start up in the middle of a war? — is closely linked to the Jack Kani rugby story, certainly in the last 40 or so years.
The tighthead prop started his senior career with Puni in the 1970s, but tried his luck with Ardmore in the
1980s, cracking the Counties team in
30 games, often packing down alongside All Blacks Rod Ketels and Andy Dalton, and good enough to win a New Zealand Maori trial. But Kani always knew he would return to his roots. He did, to coach, play and combine those roles before serving on the committee and wearing many hats, often simultaneously.
“You can leave Puni, but you will always look back to see how they are going. In 2014, I was retired but I knew I was bullshitting. In that year, they had three games and then pulled the team out for the season. There was nothing here and I said ‘If you go one more year like this, the doors will close and stay permanently closed’,” says Kani, who still looks hale and hearty, despite putting his head in countless scrums and rucks.
Needless to say, Puni hung in there, and they are still hanging in there, despite a dearth of players, a sparse turnout at training and a leaky roof.
Don’t worry, the roof will be fixed before the 75th jubilee, and Kani and his crew have plans to up the ante to ensure they field more than just 17 or 18 on Saturdays.
Puni has shown their competitiveness in 2018, and have sung the team song twice after wins.
Kani is the manager, tighthead prop and more.
“I just write down the team sheet, and next minute I’m playing. But the front row is easy. I just scrummage
and tell the young fellas to make a tackle or pinch that ball,” he quips.
Some of those “young fellas” are whanau. At times there have been up to 11 family members in the team.
“They all whakapapa to my grandparents. A lot have different surnames but they all connect.”
But do not think Kani is the sole Puni rugby veteran who rocks up each week.
His brother-in-law, loose forward Paul Paranihi, the club president, owns up to being 61, while his younger brother Koro Mangakahia is
56 and also wears the low numbers. Such is the family-oriented ethos of Puni, where you will enjoy a decent match and a tasty feed at the aftermatch, not to mention a cleansing ale.
Kani knows Puni cannot be insular in its outlook. A kapa haka group has joined the club and uses the facilities, while they would love to see a netball club bearing the Puni name.
“If you just stick to rugby, you are destined to fail. Clubs are about people and getting them through the doors.
“On the rugby side, we’re looking good for at least the next five years, with the current crop of players, but in behind that we have work to do. We need to recruit and start working with the high schools.
“I’d like to give up playing, but if we can’t get a front row, you can’t start a game, and it’s easy to scrum,” he says.
His wife of 42 years, Bella, would love to see him hang up his boots, but she might have to hide, or burn, them first.
Puni’s rugby highlights are many: from the introduction of the first women’s team, to beating a strong Bombay team in the early 1990s, to seeing centre Shane Te Rangi wear the Counties colours from the club in
1988.
The club is still here, and for that they can thank men like Jack Kani.