My main North Harbour rugby connection centres around 1997-2001, when I played 54 premier games at first five for East Coast Bays, appearing alongside the likes of Slade McFarland, Mark 'Sharkey' Robinson, Bill Wigglesworth, Cliff Mytton, Grant Morris, the late Simon 'Tang' Moore, Steve Cammell, and a host of other characters. One of the highlights was making the 1998 semis and I believe the Bays' premiers have only made the top four once or twice since then. But winning the 2001 reserves championship was very special. We had a top bunch of guys under the coaching of Bill Wigglesworth.
I played for New Zealand Under 17s in 1991 and was selected for the 1995 NZ Universities, having played most of my rugby on the dark side (in Auckland!), starting at Sacred Heart College and then to the Auckland University club, with short stints at Marist and Grammar.
The undoubted highlight of my career, however, was two tours (seven games) for Manu Samoa in 1995 and 2000, where I feel safe to say I was the whitest man to ever represent that august team. My bloodlines are impeccable, though, for all you sceptics.
That period bookended two seasons playing in France for third tier clubs, where I did not earn enough for a deposit in the current housing market. I went straight from Bays' 1997 season into an NPC division two campaign with Thames Valley. In all, I played 18 first-class games and made about 18 tackles... if I was lucky.
Writing on rugby seemed a lot easier than playing it, so winning that title in 2001 with Bays was the last of my competitive rugby. I got through an AUT journalism diploma and started writing on the game that year, working at the Western Leader (2002-04) and Rugby News (2005-12) before heading down the freelance route. I have covered 50 All Blacks tests.
I contract to the Herald now, writing on almost every level of the game, along with putting together College Sport in the Herald on Wednesdays.
On Tuesdays during term time, I will be doing a national First XV wrap to go up online atwww.nzherald.co.nz and I can assure you there will be plenty in there on the North Harbour Canon 1A competition, in which it is pleasing to see newcomers Whangarei BHS show their competitiveness.
You'll again find me tapping away in the press box at all North Harbour Mitre 10 Cup games this year. I played some code with Steve Jackson back in the day (Auckland Schools and Auckland Colts) so I know how Jacko works. He is on the right track with this team and they are good enough to reach the semis, and better, of the Championship in 2016.
There are top rugby people in North Harbour. I'd like to see more of them support the rep teams, so the crowds grow. This is still a union with a huge amount of potential.
As a post-script, I am lucky enough to be a member of the Barbarians club, which counts several North Harbour members.
As for the future of rugby journalism, how long have you got?! I started at the Herald two years ago doing stuff for the paper, which found its way online. Now it is very much the other way round. It is a fluid situation, but the online beast is now predominant, and there is an urgency to get stories up for the world to read. That gives more scope to get your work out there to a wider audience, not to mention allowing more leeway to go deeper into a subject, unrestricted by word counts, though perhaps not by the attention span of some readers. Some of those who read my stuff, however, do so only in the paper, and I believe the paper is still an important vehicle for information, and not just the advertising dollar.
It is vital in rugby journalism to have the ability to switch between a short, punch news story, to a longer feature, to a preview or a match report. You need to have a sense of the game's history, a fat book of contacts, a thick skin, and an understanding partner or wife. Covering rugby requires a certain amount of commitment and believe me when I say some rugby writers do not have the requisite passion.
But I would not swap it for anything, unless of course they showed me some serious money!
Cheers,
Burnesy
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