End of era as Kaierau take field with no Robinsons
Talented brothers ply skills in Australia
It won’t seem the same at the Kaierau Country Club this weekend with no members of the Robinson family on the playing field. Brothers Ethan and Cade are now both playing in Australia — goalkicking utility back Ethan in his first year in Perth and lock Cade in his second season on the Sunshine Coast.
They had been Steelform Whanganui reps and key members of the Whanganui Car Centre Kaierau premiers before crossing the Tasman.
Both 29-year-old Cade, a roading contractor, and 26-year-old Ethan, a roofing contractor, had played in local lower-grade representative teams while at Whanganui High School, Ethan being a member of five rep squads in 2017 when he made his Heartland first-class debut as a substitute in Whanganui’s 10-6 win against North Otago at Cooks Gardens. The following week both brothers ran onto Timaru’s Alpine Energy Stadium as reserves when the Butcher Boys shaded South Canterbury 29-24 in the Meads Cup semifinals to avenge a 17-21 loss at the same field a month earlier.
Ethan Robinson went on to play 36 times for Whanganui, landing four penalties in the home side’s 22-16 win over North Otago in the 2021 Lochore final at Cooks Gardens.
It was sweet revenge for a 19-33 Meads Cup finals away loss at Ō amaru two years earlier when Ethan Robinson went on as a replacement. His final game for the union was at fullback in the highscoring 47-36 Meads Cup final loss at Pleasant Point last season, when he kicked a penalty and two conversions.
Ethan Robinson scored 175 points for Whanganui including 100 last year and 65 in 2021.
Cade Robinson had 13 rep appearances, three each in 2017 and 2020 and seven in 2021, running on as a replacement forward in Meads Cup (30-14 v Horowhenua-Kapiti at Levin in 2017) and Lochore Cup (v North Otago here in 2021 in his last rep game) finals.
Ethan Robinson scored 396 points in six years with the Kaierau Premiers including 125 in 2017, 91 in 2021 and 88 — top in the union — in 2020.
He scored all 16 points to upset Taihape 16-5 in the 2021 premier semifinal in Taihape and all 18 points in holding Border to 23-18 in the final at Cooks Gardens a week later.
Although the two Robinson brothers are overseas, their father Darrell is still very active in Whanganui rugby as manager of the Heartland reps since 2019 and currently Kaierau chairman and video recorder (along with club president Neil Forlong).
Darrell Robinson was in five Kaierau Premier club champion forward packs — 1993 (coach Harvey Carvell), 1997 (coach Red Morris), captain in 1999 (coach Dave Simes) and assistant coach-player 2004 and 2005 (coach Red Morris, the last time Kaierau won the title).
He was educated at PNBHS and St Pat’s Silverstream and was in the
army at Waiō uru when he first met current WRFU chairman Jeff Phillips, the pair going on to win club championship titles and become Kaierau life members, also in the 1992 senior champion team coached by Harvey Carvell.
When Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau Premiers host McCarthy Transport Ruapehu and Gemini Pepper Construction Kaierau Seniors meet Utiku Old Boys on Saturday it will be the first Tasman Tanning Whanganui rugby at the Devon Road Country Club this year.
Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist Premiers host Byford’s Readimix Taihape at Spriggens Park with Waverley Harvesting Border sitting out the bye.
In the seniors, Border play AGC Marist Knights at Dallison Park on Friday night with Black Bull Pirates at home to Castlecliff Hotel Mustangs on Saturday, McCrea Scanning Counties to Ali Arc Marist Celtic, Tamatauhaha Ratana to Kelso Hunterville and JJ Walters Ashphalt Marton to Bennett’s Taihape. Latest points:
Premier — Taihape (29 pts differential) and Border (15) 9, Marist (22) and Kaierau (0) 5, Ruapehu 0.
Senior — Kaierau 15, Celtic 14, Taihape 11 (80), Hunterville 11 (42), Utiku OB 10, Pirates (33) and Rā tana (13) 9, Knights (-28) and Counties (-34) 5, Marton (-48), Mustangs (-148) and Border (-181) 0.
Whanganui Connections
Whanganui has lost three 80-yearold-plus rugby identities with the deaths of referee Ron Pollock, Northern Whanganui rep forward Syd Smallman and Kaierau rep back Bob Griffiths.
Smallman, aged 88, who played for Huia, was a front-row prop for Laddie Transom’s Butcher Boys in 1960-61.
Unfortunately, Whanganui did not win any of the 11 matches he played in — nine in 1960 and two a year later, although visiting Auckland was held to 14-6 in his debut at Spriggens Park.
The New Zealand Rugby Almanack commented that Smallman, an agricultural contractor, impressed as
“an active prop”.
Moawhango Huia, formed in 1897 and reputedly the oldest club in Northern Whanganui, won the Whanganui union-wide combined premier club championship in 1981 (11-3 v Marton OB) and again in the 1982 round-robin, drawing 7-7 with Ō hakune in the deciding fixture.
Huia, who along with Taihape Pirates merged to form the Taihape club in 1999, won Taihape sub-union titles in 1931-33-34-44-47-49-51-5657-58-77-83-92.
The club provided seven Mā ori All Blacks — Win Pine, Tommy Chase, Herby Kingi, Wattie McKay, Dixie McCarthy (top points scorer in the country one year) and Mohi Tupaea.
Huia’s most famous player has been 20-cap All Blacks wing forward Moke Belliss, who represented New Zealand in 1920-23, including against the 1921 touring Springboks and had 41 games for Whanganui between 1914-31.
Bob Griffiths, who died at the age of 80, played seven games for Whanganui in 1973-74, including four on three trips to the South Island in his first season.
The midfield back played for the Coventry club and for Warwickshire before coming to Whanganui in 1972 to teach maths at Collegiate School.
He was on the staff for 27 years and was Selwyn Housemaster in 1982 when Prince Edward has attached to the house while a two-term junior schoolmaster.
Griffiths naturally coached sport while at the school and followed North Island selector and 1959-59 Whanganui rep back Jim Wallace as first XV coach at one stage.
He joined the Kaierau club, winning Whanganui Premier championship honours, and was named by selectors Ron McPhun, Brian Murphy and Ian Strachan in the 36-man squad for the hectic 1973 17-match representative season.
It was the union’s busiest-ever rep schedule with the team winning only seven games, including 28-6 against King Country at Te Kū iti in Griffiths’ first-class debut.
Whanganui’s winning side was
Bob Barrell; Rangi Paki, Bill Osborne, Paul Sharland, Bob Griffiths, Colin Howard, Dave Selby; Maurice Rush, John Transom, Rob Pearson, Graeme Coleman, John Knofflock, Snow Chase, Tom Spry, Peter Wallis.
Griffiths also played in the second game of a South Island tour, at centre outside Osborne, in a 26-13 win over North Otago, but was in beaten teams against Otago ( 31-9) and Southland ( 14-0).
Whanganui were back in the South Island three weeks later for what was scheduled to be a Ranfurly Shield challenge at Lancaster Park but Marlborough ruined that by lifting the “Old Log”.
Griffiths played second five when Canterbury roasted Whanganui 65-16. He returned south for a third time, at centre, when Marlborough retained the Shield 30-6 in Blenheim.
The Almanack rated Griffiths as a “useful player”. In his only rep appearance in 1994 Whanganui was beaten 26-8 by Manawatu in a Bruce Steel Cup challenge at the Showgrounds.
After retiring from Collegiate, Bob Griffiths worked in real estate and also escorting visitors around the city centre on scenic walking trips.
It was fitting that 48-cap (1975-82) All Black and recently-retired NZR president Bill Osborne, who played six Whanganui rep matches in 1973 with Griffiths and also in Kaierau teams, should come over from Bay of Plenty for the funeral.
Ron Pollock, a commercial traveller, who died at the age of 84, played a major role as an active and administrative referee in the union.
He was elected a life member of the Whanganui referees after holding numerous key positions within the association, including as the delegate on the Whanganui union and serving on the appointments board.
Although he was an experienced referee and controlled senior club fixtures, Pollock was unfortunate to be active around the same era as the likes of Bill Adlam and Colin Broadhead, who controlled the bulk of major local rep games as well as being awarded NZR fixtures.