Tomarata club reignites passion for rugby

WORDS/JULIA WADE
PHOTOS/MELODY TITO

As winter sports wind down for another year, one local club reports to having an incredible season, cheered on by an unusually high number of supportive spectators.

Although only having a short season due to Covid-19, Tomarata Rugby Club’s senior team have attracted crowds of between three and four hundred to their six games with the numbers ballooning to an estimated five or six hundred when the Sky Sports ‘Grassroots Rugby’ crew turned up to film Tomarata vs Otamatea on August 8 (pictured).

The crowd numbers have been the best the club has ever had, coach of two years Phil Tana says.

“I think we’ve had good support all season because our boys are all local so their families and friends attend, as well as friends of friends,” he says. “We also play an entertaining game – hard, running rugby.”

Players are generally ‘blue-collar’ twenty-something-plus locals, working as farmers and in the trade industry, however the team does boast a couple of ‘rarities’ – two players in their forties.

“The oldest is forty-five… they still play because they enjoy the game… and their bodies are still functioning,” he jokes. “This grade is a blend of players that have played in the top division who don’t want to take their rugby so seriously anymore, and younger players coming up through the age levels, so you’re either on your way up or on your way through…”

The seniors successfully made it into the semi-finals for the Northland Championship Blackie Walters Memorial Trophy, however due to Tomarata Club being located within Auckland’s boundary with players on either side of the Kaipara/Auckland border, and despite being part of the Northland rugby union, Covid-19 restrictions meant the team had to pull out of the competition.

“It was an unfortunate way to end the season and was hard on the players,” Tana says, “But at the end of the day it was outside everyone’s control.”

As well as the seniors, Tomarata also has four junior and one midget team. Tana, who has also coached in several other clubs says there is definitely a different feeling in Tomarata in the way how people interact with one another and winning is not the only focus for the club.

Tana says the club has a more social feel compared to others he has been involved with.

“I admire all the volunteers, the farmers, local business owners who give their time because they love contributing to a community club. It’s more about the social side of the game with an aim on having fun and nurturing the passion of rugby. I enjoy it because it’s community-based and grassroots, there’s a lot of honour because people aren’t paid as a player, there’s no financial incentive, you just play because you enjoy the game.”

§ Want to know more? Visit facebook.com/tomaratarugby