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From the Shadow of the Pinetree: The Renaissance of King Country Rugby

The former underdog cult hero teams of NZ rugby are enjoying a halcyon season in the Heartland Championship.
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Jason Wells had nothing ahead of him, except maybe a lifetime of telling stories over a few beers about the time he outran the Springboks.

The King Country winger was in full flight, having intercepted the ball 35 metres out from his own line. He had a clear four or five metres on the trailing South African defence.

The try line was a long way away, but he should have made it. Instead, Wells started looking back behind his shoulder as the Springboks defenders neared. He kept looking and looking – and was hauled in only a couple of metres out from the try line.

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King Country would get a penalty try from the resulting break in play, but Wells had missed out. The bastard could've been the toast of every pub in Taupo, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui and Otorohanga.

I was up the embankment that day – June 23, 1994 - at Owen Delany Park in Taupo. I was ten years old, and screaming myself hoarse for Wells. It was the opening game of the South African tour, and Dad had got me out of school for the afternoon.

In my own out-sized memory of the game, I see Wells continuously checking over his shoulder as the South African defenders drew closer and closer. I feel certain he will score, and can't believe that he blew it.

Why the hell didn't he just go for it?

King Country playing South Africa at Owen Delaney Park in Taupo, 1994. Source: Youtube.

King Country would lose the game handily 46-10, but they'd been part of history. This was the first South African rugby tour to New Zealand since 1981. Since then, the international rugby community had banished the Africans due to apartheid. They'd never been in New Zealand since I'd been alive.

Despite breaking from the sport as an adult, tired of rugby's domineering position in the Kiwi sports landscape, I grew up immersed in the code's history. I played my Grandad's old vinyls of Winston McCarthy commentating tests from 1950s.

I read greedily about Kel Tremain and Brian Lochore, but mostly of the great Colin Meads.

Meads – a.k.a. Pinetree - was a legend; far more myth than man. He was the farmer who carried strainer posts around his Te Kuiti property during the week, played rugby tests for the All Blacks on the weekends, drank countless handles of beers afterwards – and did it all again the next week.

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To read of him as a kid was to read of a Kiwi colossus; a bloke whose shadow still falls on the All Black jersey today.

When he wasn't wearing the black jumper or on the farm, Meads was leading King Country to take on the city bastards like Auckland, Canterbury or Wellington.

Through Meads and his cohorts, I learnt why rugby mattered to New Zealand - and why beating the Boks meant we were the best.

And so, the Springboks – these Afrikaans titans of the footy paddock – were back, and in my hometown too.

They were halcyon days for King Country, back in the early 90s. Led by hooker Phil Coffin – the province's last ever All Black – and his brother Hutana, a first-five with one of the best right pegs in provincial rugby, the Rams were in NPC's First Division for six years.

An old billboard at Rugby Park in Te Kuiti, referring to All Blacks legend Sir Colin Meads. Photo credit: WikiCommons.

Maybe it was the omnipresence of the Pinetree – a regular at most King Country games back then – but they punched way above their weight division. This was a collection of farm workers, chippies, subbies, freezing workers and bank clerks who beat All Black studded teams like Otago and Canterbury.

Two years before the Boks game, I went to my first ever rugby match, at Owen Delany - where I played my cricket as a kid - when King Country fought Auckland for the Shield. They got beat badly, but it didn't matter.

I was up in the stand with my Dad and Uncle, and I was watching Auckland winger John Kirwan, my early childhood hero, play. My uncle bought a flask, and he and Dad drank tea from it. It's funny the things you remember.

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In 1996, the balloon popped for King Country. They were relegated. For most of the last twenty years, it's stayed flat.

My rugby fandom shifted to Hawke's Bay, where the majority of my family was from. While, as mentioned, my interest in most rugby and the All Blacks has since waned, I've stayed a dedicated fan of the Magpies.

Friends will attest to the ridiculous extents I've gone to just to see Hawke's Bay play, especially for the Shield.

As for King Country, the glory days have been back of late. On Saturday, they will host North Otago at Rugby park in Te Kuiti for the Lochore Cup final.

The Rams won the trophy, which awarded the top team in New Zealand's second tier Heartland Championship, last year.

They played North Otago then, too – beating them 37-24.

If this was like the old days, back in the 90s, the Rams would be up for promotion to the Mitre 10 Cup to mix it with the "big boys".

Alas, that won't happen. New Zealand provincial rugby is an utter mess these days; an New Zealand Rugby after thought to the exciting, but under-supported Super Rugby comp.

Members of a recent crowd for a King Country game in Te Kuiti. Photo credit: Youtube.

The top tier is poorly organised into two confusing divisions - that very little rugby fans understand - meaning the best semi-professional teams in the land may not even be meeting in the ITM Cup final. All Blacks rarely play for their home unions anymore, with Super Rugby teams treating provincial affiliations merely as a way to curb eligibility rules for incoming players.

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Fairfax Media columnist Logan Savory recently opined the death of provincial footy, saying that the middle man was being cut out – and resources were now being poured into schoolboy rugby.

"Super Rugby officials are now scouting schoolboy rugby to find their next group of players," he wrote.

"The Chiefs signed Damien McKenzie out of Christ's College, and those type of deals are becoming more and more common. Promising rugby players as young as 15 now require player agents."

"Many now leap over the provincial step on New Zealand rugby's pathway, and jump to a Super Rugby contract," he summarized.

Professional rugby has been great for the elite level in New Zealand, but horrific for the rest. Back in the 1990s, before the game went pro, crowds were massive. Provincial footy was the biggest show in town.

With money pouring into the ABs and then Super Rugby, it was inevitable that the provincial level – arguably the third overall tier of the code in NZ – would suffer.

There's cursory broadcast attention on the Mitre 10 Cup, due to SKY TV's big long-standing deal with New Zealand Rugby, but television audiences have been far from impressive. It trades on nostalgia for home, even though there are about a dozen better sports to watch at any given time on the telly.

As for the Heartland Championship, matches are consigned to half-hour highlights packages wedged between other sport on SKY.

Highlights of a Heartland Championship match between King Country and Buller earlier this month. Source: Youtube.

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The quality of Heartland rugby obviously matches its level of mismanagement and lack of attention from New Zealand Rugby, but there's been some quality players in recent years there.

Wantaway former All Black winger Zac Guildford played for Wairarapa-Bush this season, while cult hero Tasman first-five Marty Banks used to play for Buller. He'll lead out the Makos in their Mitre 10 Cup Premiership final against Canterbury this weekend.

Really though, the Heartland level is now just about boys playing for the boys, and their families. Resources are lean, and it's usually bus trips around the North or South Islands to get where they need to go for games.

Perhaps, in that way, the likes of King Country are back to the ethos of the Meads era, again. The attention and public profile isn't there anymore, but when they pull on those jumpers, they know they're not doing it for the money. It's for each other, and the jersey itself.

Colin Meads is a Sir now, but the 80-year-old is not in a good way. The Pinetree has pancreatic cancer and is said to be struggling with it.

Yet the New Zealand Herald has reported he has made "unobtrusive appearances" to Rams games this year, from his home in Te Kuiti. You know how much it means to the Tree, don't ya.

IS RUGBY A GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD IN NEW ZEALAND?

I'm currently in the States and have been turned off by a lot of stuff in New Zealand rugby. The sense of entitlement, at a national level, and culture of misogyny - as evidenced by the recent Waikato Chiefs stripper scandal & Losi Filipo affair - totally rub me the wrong way.

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But when I wake up on Sunday morning, I'd love to hear that the Rams have won. Two titles in two years - how about that?.

Now, I've no idea what became of Jason Wells, but you'd have to imagine that every now and then, that denied runaway try against the Springboks comes up over a coupla jars.

Maybe people still ask him: why didn't you pin your ears back, mate? You would've made it.

Personally, I reckon he would have too.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The name King Country refers back to the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, when British forces invaded the Waikato and pushed the Maori King movement back into the Central North Island.

This part of the North Island – spanning from just south of Hamilton to the badlands around Turangi – was known as the King Country.

Follow Ben on Twitter.