500 rugby games for one club
Jason Judd first ran out, barefoot on frosty ground, in 1972 aged 5.
He ran out on Saturday for his 500th game of rugby with the Wellington Football Club amid his 50th consecutive season of playing rugby.
The fact his team lost was almost irrelevant.
Judd, 54, had already played for four years for a club team in Taranaki, then four years for Wellington College Old Boys before joining the Hatatai-based Wellington Football Club, going on to play 500 games for its Axemen team, mostly at halfback.
In all of those matches, he has yet to get a serious injury – except for once putting his knee out during the last game of the season.
‘‘Some would say that my selfpreservation skills are quite high,’’ he said.
Saturday’s game, in the presidents’ grade, was against the Paremata Plimmerton Rugby Football Club.
In honour of Judd’s milestone game, the scoreboard read 500 to 35 in favour of his team, which actually lost.
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster dropped by to mark the occasion, while a 65-year-old joined the team on field.
Judd has no plans to hang up his boots yet. ‘‘I think I will keep going, the body is holding together.’’
Former club president Keith Quinn described Judd as a ‘‘consistent’’ player.
‘‘I don’t know how he does it.’’ In addition to playing each weekend of the season, Judd also wrote and produced the club’s magazine. He had been chairman and secretary of the club, and did all sorts of other volunteer work.
‘‘He is our guy who does everything,’’ Quinn said.