Doffing his cap to history

Otago Daily Times

16 hours ago

My oldest boy wanted to please his dad when he was young and one way to his dad's heart was through rugby.
My husband never enjoyed actually playing rugby, but he had a love for the game. He would get the kids up in the early hours of the morning to watch a game or go to a game at the stadium, there was regular screaming at the screen about a losing Highlanders side, poor refereeing, or legendary All Black tries. It was a culture in our house, but it was also a wider family culture too.
I was raised as if rugby were a religion, watching it but being schooled on the fact that the art of rugby surged through our veins and that we have an extensive history and ownership with the game. My great uncle was a bit of a rugby legend and, in fact, we have others who come from Ōtākou, clearly we were made for the game.
Thomas Rangiwahia Ellison was born in 1866 and was to become one of New Zealand's most famous rugby sons. About 1881 he was introduced to rugby football by his cousins at Ōtākou — Jack Taiaroa, who was to become a prominent member of the first New Zealand rugby team in 1884, and Riki Taiaroa, who later joined Ellison in the touring Native team of 1888-89.
In 1882, Tom was sent to Te Aute College, Hawke's Bay, where he played for the senior team in 1883 and 1884. His first international honours came with the New Zealand Native Football Team, a professional side, which toured Great Britain and Australia in 1888-89. Initially a forward and later a wing, Ellison played half-back for Pōneke in 1891, and from that experience developed the wing-forward, or flanker, position to block interference with passing from the base of the scrum. The system was quickly adopted throughout New Zealand; it was superseded by the eight-man scrum in 1932.
In 1893, Ellison captained the first official New Zealand team and he proposed that the uniform be a black jersey with silver fern monogram — this was similar to the old Native team uniform — and in 1901 it became the familiar All Black uniform. In 1902 he published The Art of Rugby Football , an early rugby coaching manual.
Eventually, Ellison took a keen interest in Kāi Tahu land claims: he was appointed an interpreter in the Native Land Court in 1886 and stood three times for the Southern Maori seat in Parliament. From 1891 he worked as a solicitor and, from 1902, as a barrister in the Wellington law firm Brandon, Hislop and Johnston, he was admitted to the Bar, one of the first Māori to attain that distinction. He became a familiar figure commuting to work from Eastbourne in one of the first motor cars seen in Wellington. Ellison died a young man in 1904 and was buried at Ōtākou.
I grew up with these legendary stories about our great rugby players and our family have produced many more talented players. It's probably a fair call to say, it's an Ellison thing — he momo.
So, circling back to my son, a descendant of all that rugby whakapapa, who, like most Kiwi lads, started playing rugby when he was 5. I will confess that I was fairly unenthusiastic about the whole thing. Cold Saturdays, injuries, intense sideline parenting and the perceived culture of it all just didn't flick my switch. However, I made all efforts to support him.
The thing is, my son wasn't a natural rugby player. He struggled to keep up, he wasn't overly interested in the game and, like the rest of my children, he really doesn't have that competitive killer attitude that is required on the field ... I mean, I was just happy he was getting a run. However, apart from one year that we put him into football, he played rugby, year in, year out.
Ultimately, he just loved the brotherhood, the team camaraderie, the banter, the laughs and he really got a kick out of his team winning and his team-mates doing well. I think perhaps the coaches got a laugh, too, out of coaching my son, as he was pretty entertaining.
He went away to his Māori boys boarding school in the North Island a few years ago now, as he is in his last year. He continued to play the game at school, and I just assumed it was expected that he did.
He naturally got taller and leaned out, he trained a bit at school and kept in it. He took on basketball too and loves the game but still played rugby.
He said his life would flash before him on a Saturday as massive boys with killer attitudes would come running at him. In some regards, I am glad I have never had to watch this rugby warfare with my beautiful boy in the middle of it.
Through all his rugby trials and tribulations, he said the one thing he wanted was to make his dad proud and get that 1st XV cap, and he has done it. In two weeks' time he gets his wish, presented with his cap by his pōua (grandfather) at his school.
So, with that, my son gets to acknowledge the journey in the game, the injuries, the wins, the losses, the growth, his brotherhood, his tūpuna, his dad and, finally, his cousin Taiaroa, also a descendant of these Ōtākou rugby legends, whose amazing rugby talent has been halted by cancer. This is my son's salute.