Veteran wing Patrick Osborne loving Waikato leadership role
Serial winner tells Marc Hinton he has his eye on a sixth Premiership title with his Mooloo surprise packets.
AT 33 and with knees not exactly ageing gracefully, Patrick Osborne is revelling in maybe one last run at aNew Zealand provincial rugby title in his first season with Waikato.
The former Fijian international and proven winner on the Kiwi scene has been a key member as Waikato has powered into a surprising second spot on the Premiership standings heading into the final four weeks of the regular season.
The strapping wing is very much the senior member of the Waikato backline – although not the Mooloos squad, given the presence of the 36-year-old Liam Messam and 38-year-old Adam Thomson – as they’ve carved their way to an impressive 5-1 record heading into today’s clash against Taranaki in Hamilton.
‘‘Everybody is doing their jobs properly and the boys are enjoying the trainings, being around each other, learning off each other and feeding off each other aswell,’’ said Osborne of what’s turned into a bonus situation in the Waikato.
Earlier this year Osborne was contemplating his next move back home in Christchurch, fresh off knee surgery on the back of an ill-fated attempt to link up with Leicester in the English Premiership. He got the procedure done just before Covid struck, spent lockdown in rehab mode and by May was fit enough to contemplate another campaign.
Then Waikato coach Andrew Strawbridge came calling, looking for a veteran type to lend some experience to an otherwise young backline, and the easygoing Fijian did not exactly need his arm twisted.
Although he had played all of his New Zealand provincial rugbywith Canterbury (and won five Premiership titles), he had familiarity with Hamilton after spending a championship
winning season with the Chiefs in 2013. Osborne played most of his Super Rugby with the Highlanders (51 games from 2014-17), including a prominent role in the 2015 title-winning campaign, and had three seasons in Japan with Kubota Spears before his stint in England ended in a oneway trip home to New Zealand.
‘‘My knee just couldn’t cope,’’ he tells Sunday News. ‘‘It didn’t agree with the weather. It was just too cold.’’
More agreeable has been Waikato’s campaign, with last Sunday’s 16-15 upset of his old Canterbury side in Christchurch taking them just a point behind the pacesetting Aucklanders.
Osborne credits Waikato’s surprise resurgence (they were sixth in last year’s Premiership) as being the result of good coaching, excellent preparation (‘‘The boys have been training pretty much since end of Mitre 10 last year’’), some youthful enthusiasm and an excellent work ethic.
‘‘It’s just ingrained in everyone here to work hard ... I’m happy to see these young boys stepping up and everybody who’s had a chance has grabbed
it with two hands,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve got heaps of young boys, and they’re willing to learn. When one of the old boys talks, everybody takes it in and works with it straight away.’’
Osborne’s repaired knee is coping well enough – but this week he’s been dealing with swelling in his other knee: ‘‘I think the 89 minutes [against Canterbury] was a bit too much for the old knee,’’ he says.
The powerful wing also has nothing but admiration for Messam and Thomson who are setting such a great example up front. ‘‘Adam is the oldest, but he’s had more games than me and Liam at the moment. I think it’s his food – he’s gone vegan or something.’’
Osborne says the Mooloos are locked in to a strong finish to give themselves the best chance for a crack at the title.
‘‘We’re in a good spot with four games to go. After this we’ve got Auckland (away), Bay of Plenty (home) and Northland (away). We need to treat every week from now as a final.’’
Beyond this campaign, Osborne has nothing locked in, but admits a Super Rugby gig in New Zealand would fit the bill.
‘‘We’ll see what the body feels like after this season ... I would love another run at Super, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But you definitely don’t want to be travelling too far.’’
Osborne’s wife and three school-aged children are in Christchurch, which he says is tough but part of being a professional sportsman.