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Red Machine

The Red Machine
No 3. June-July, 2005

Senior 1’s clean sweep in first round MSP’s senior 1 side took out the first round with 11 wins from 11 games, finishing a clear 13 competition points ahead of second-placed Petone. The Liam Halpin-coached team was awarded the Harper Lock Shield for its efforts and is playing the second round in the Hardham Cup competition against a mix of premier and senior one sides. The team is pictured here at Maidstone Park after their 53-10 win over Upper Hutt in the final game of the round.

VICTORY SPEECH: Senior 1s captain and prop Kene La’foga accepts the Harper Lock Shield from WRFU president Ian McCarrison. The team scored 324 points while conceding just 84.
	Lock Mark Simeon about to secure another lineout.

All not as it seems on club scene
by John Spillane
MSP chairman

In preparing these contributions to the Red Machine I am mindful that the handful of readers are very rugby savvy. Many have an indepth knowledge of the club’s operations and closely follow the results. So what do I burst into print about?

Maybe the efforts of the Shamrock Club organisers and their fundraising functions around the Lions tour, or the young premier coaching team of Reidy and Bell? Do I focus on the efforts of the new colts’ coaches (Higgs, McGuinness and Smith), or departing junior convenor Dan Tait-Jamieson, or maybe the new ­under-19s and their progress?

However, I will take this opportunity to express a personal view about where I see amateur club rugby heading. I am not at all comfortable that the club scene has a healthy ­future. The various initiatives of ­rugby ­officialdom are having a very ­negative impact on the club ­environment, I believe.

The expansion of the NPC is a blow to club rugby, as the additional players required will come out of the club scene. Their contracts will distract them from careers outside rugby but not deliver incomes to sustain them long-term.

Proposed changes to the local club competition will see 900+ players involved in the top three tiers of Wellington rugby. I don’t see this as improving the competition or developing player depth, but as a means of establishing a new low average across the majority of clubs.

The Super 14 will impact by cutting further into the club scene and crowding out media coverage of local sport. I worry about club support and the standard of rugby in the future. The game will be diluted down to a spectacle so unattractive that ­support will be impossible to muster.

We are heading towards a ­system that sees players earmarked for academies and development squads at a very early age rather than enjoying a club season or two and developing at their own pace. School competitions will mark the end of organised amateur rugby, and we will end up with an American Football model of participation by just a few professionals.

Initiatives that appear to support our game may in fact be having the opposite impact. Astute NZRFU marketing will keep the masses who love club rugby from seeing the impacts until it is too late - “the game” as just a business and players robbed of the opportunity to enjoy amateur competition week in week out at all levels.

The tragedy is that all those dedicated volunteers, whose efforts enable clubs like ours to function, so often feel that the professional game is pulling in the opposite direction.

MSP stars shine on Idol night
Another highly successful MSP Idol night early in May showed that the club’s stars can shine on and off the field.

Organiser Kalolo Afuie and MC Mike ‘Soody’ Sood ran the show as a representative from each team performed in front of a packed clubrooms. The judges awarded the much coveted ‘MSP Idol’ to colts player Conor Lewis, the second year running the colts have snared the much-coveted trophy.

MSP IDOL 2005: Colts halfback Conor Lewis.	THE JUDGES: Premiers’ manager Rob Evans, MSP secretary Colleen Upton, and All Black Jerry Collins.

FREDDY FENDER? No, Apollo Perellini, on behalf of the presidents.	RYO YOSHIKAWA from the senior 2s was right at home singing ‘Sukiyaki’.
		EMMA PAHL, on behalf of wives and girlfriends, provided the glamour.

WILLIAM HOPGOOD from the under-19s upheld the Hoppy family’s vocal traditions.	JON PAUL TOCKER from the premiers donned an outfit based on the movie ‘Top Gun’ and belted out “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’.	WHITE SOUL: Righteous Brothers Mike Renouf and Aaron Davies from the senior ones.

AROUND THE TRAPS
Perry get-together
Four Perry brothers who played for MSP in the 1970s and ‘80s were spotted having a reunion ale at the clubrooms early in May.
While Mark still holds the fort in Wellington, Brian now lives in Canada, Brendan in Auckland, and John in Melbourne. They were all back in town for their mother’s birthday.

Senior 2 boyos famous
Players from the Senior 2s will soon be famous in Wales following an interview by a television crew from BBC Wales.
The players were sitting on the back of manager Ray Scotson’s truck at Cobham Park, about to be ferried back to the Evans Bay changing rooms after their 5-5 draw with Wests.
With the television cameras running, the journalists quizzed the boys about the Lions tour, and the senior 2s confidently predicted either a whitewash or a 2-1 series win to the All Blacks.
The senior 2s, who often play other clubs’ first or second teams, came fourth from 12 sides in the first round. They began the second round with a 15-10 win over Petone, and coach Glenn Stewart says he’s proud of a core of players who are working hard to achieve some good results.
Captain Chris Egan, who leads a small but very competitive pack that often dominates bigger opponents, won the player-of-the day award in the Petone match and first-five Mike Duncan kicked five penalties.

Irish influence
Colts flanker Shane Young won the player-of-the-day award after the colts came out on top in a 35-34 thriller against Johnsonville to secure second spot in the first round.
In a great game of running rugby, the colts scored five tries after ­being down 17-3 after 20 minutes.
Shane, who is from Ireland, has noted several differences between club rugby here and back home in County Galway. Players tend to be bigger here and are given more scope by coaches to play their own game, he says. Firmer grounds also encourage a more running game than he is used to back home.

Top points' scorers

PLAYER PROFILE

Anthony Bradshaw

Nickname: Ants, flea
Age: 22
Family: Mum, three sisters, one brother
Hometown: Newlands
Secondary school: St Pat’s Town
Workplace: Builder
Playing position: Halfback
Rugby history: MSP premiers, Wellington U-19, Wellington Colts
Other sports: Touch, cricket, ­ surfing.

Favourites
food: Mum’s roast
drink: Heineken
movie: Friday
author: Hugh Hefner
singer/group: Pearl Jam
ground: Rugby League Park
rugby player: Christian Cullen
rugby memory (best): MSP Colts winning grade and going through grade unbeaten
rugby memory (worst): Being knocked out five times

Well done, Jamie
When premier prop Jamie Parkinson ran on to the field after halftime in the Samoa v Australia test on 11 June, it meant one-third of the ­Samoan team were either current or former Marist St Pats players.

Jamie joined Apoua Stewart, Lome Fa’atau, Brian Lima, and Semo Sititi as players who have represented the club before going on to win test honours with Manu Samoa. A truck driver and proud father of one, Jamie is a long-serving MSP club member who was part of the MSP under-23 development team that toured Australia in 1998.

Departing junior convenor thanked
MSP junior convenor Dan Tait-Jamieson is heading overseas at the end of the June with the club’s best wishes and gratitude for his efforts in organising the junior club for the past three years.

Dan and wife Anna and children Jimmy, Will, and Maddie will be spending a year or more in France. The children have all played for MSP’s juniors in recent years. A St Pat’s Silverstream old boy, Dan holds a degree in French.

MSP president Pat Dunn paid tribute to Dan’s work in organising the 28 junior teams that the club fields every Saturday. “He’s done a great job in promoting junior rugby throughout Wellington schools, Catholic as well as non-Catholic. A very positive person, Dan has always placed a lot of emphasis on teamwork and making sure the ­junior club’s an inclusive environment that everyone from kids, parents and coaches can feel a part of.”

From registrations in February to prizegiving in September plus the off-season organising, the role is a year-round commitment, and Dan continued on the excellent work of former convenor John Holden.

New junior convenor
Pat Dunn will be looking after the junior club in the months ahead.
Contact details:
• Ph 388 5780 (h), 496 4047 (w), 021 846 303
• Email: pat.dunn@nzpost.co.nz

EVERYONE INVITED TO BOATSHED/ROWERS ON TEST WEEKEND
A full social calendar is planned around the All Blacks versus Lions test in Wellington on 2 July. Festivities kick off on Thursday 30 June with a clubrooms dinner, mainly for visiting Lions’ supporters and featuring All Black legend Colin Meads and commentator Keith Quinn as guest speakers.

Friday night’s pre-Test Shamrock Club dinner is already sold out with Welsh rugby writer Stephen Jones and former All Black John Gallagher proving popular drawcards.
On Saturday, attention switches to the waterfront where the club will operate out of both the Wellington Rowers Club and the Boatshed.

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