Once hailed as the rugby club with the most All Blacks per capita, Glenmark-Cheviot Rugby Club also has a proud rural grounding.
The club boasts 10 former All Blacks including Alex “Grizz” Wyllie, Graeme Higginson, Andy Jefferd, Robbie Deans, Bruce Deans, Craig Green, Richard Loe, Andy Earl, Todd Blackadder and Scott Hamilton.
But a recent challenge brought a different breed of rugby player to its club day – the battered farmer coming out of footy retirement is a reasonable description of its golden-oldie Rhinos rugby team.
More than 40 players signed up to play on Saturday May 11 against the visiting Alnwick Rugby Club from Northumberland, England – a team full of similar farming stock.
It all started when the English players were having a few drinks in 2020 and decided they wanted to tour and play a bit of rugby.
Glenmark-Cheviot lock George Fox had played for the English side when he took a working holiday farming six years ago, and suggested the two clubs play against one another.
“They got talking over a few beers during covid I think, and they all decided to come to New Zealand. They are a similar rural team.
“They say rugby is for all shapes and sizes and that team is going to be living proof of that, I’d say.”
That could be the kettle calling the pot black. Many of the Rhinos rugby players are well into their 40s and strapping on the boots after considerable periods of not playing, some having over a decade’s hiatus from the game.
“There is a heck load of them that have come out of the woodwork. Some I haven’t seen in years,” Fox said.
One of those is Hawarden sheep farmer Ben Cassidy. Farming 5000 sheep and 400 cows, Cassidy has always fit rugby around the busy lifestyle and after 12 years out of the game he was hoping for 20 “easy” minutes in the forwards.
The 51-year-old had done next to no training for the runaround but wasn’t too worried about injuries and tweaks.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing, couple games of squash and drinking a bit of beer, that’s all I have been doing.
“I am probably good for 10 minutes of it and then hoping that someone is going to replace me. I am hoping I get the last 10 because then you feel like you deserve beer, that’s sort of the goal.
“Even if I am still alive at the end, I will be happy I think.”
Aside from the undercooked preparation the majority of the players have had, the one thing they all agree on is rugby has always been a nice reprieve from the pressures of farming.
“It is incredibly good mentally, it would be one of the best things out. A lot of fun and a lot of laughs and good stories.”
Fox, who farms 4500 sheep and 200 beef in the Scargill Valley, has played over 75 matches for the club that he says is the heart of the community, or close to it.
“Rugby is sometimes the only social contact a lot of us will get during the winter so I guess it is good to get out and about and know everyone else is going through the same stuff as you especially at the moment the way things are. Farmers are hurting bad around here.”
The Cheviot Hill country has been one of the hardest hit farmlands in regard to drought this year. Farmers have been relying on outside feed for months through a dry autumn and early winter.
While Fox and neighbouring farmers have seen a tough few seasons in the sheep industry, he keeps optimistic.
“I guess you’ve just got to keep taking it day by day. We have to keep looking ahead to what’s next.
Club stalwart Jody Horrell is another who came out of the rugby retirement village after 12 years to play for the Rhinos. Having played more than 250 matches for the club over 18 years, he’d worked out how to prepare for the big match.
“I bought a heap of Voltarens the other day and I will start loading up with them, I think. I start a couple days out, I did it last year and it took the edge off a wee bit.
“A couple of years ago I played golden oldies like this and couldn’t walk for a few days, it was a struggle to get out of bed. But we will worry about that Sunday, Monday.”
The 47-year-old was born in Cheviot and runs the family farm as well as running a contracting business. Rugby has always been a huge part of checking in with his mates and getting his mind off the job,
“I remember when I was playing it was one of the main things you focus on, you did your work and rugby was it, work was all planned around rugby, really.”
This week, we chat with with Katrina Roberts, who is the new Dairy Woman of the Year. She’s a Waikato vet, working with dairy farmers to not only maintain cow health but also improve the efficiency of their farm systems.
Federated Farmers arable chair David Birkett joins us to talk about the arable industry awards, which are open to nominations now.
And, senior reporter Hugh Stringleman wraps up the dairy commodity season for us, following this week’s GDT auction.
