Hot and Sharp

Ahead of Hautapu’s 11th appearance in a Waikato senior men’s club rugby final Mary Anne Gill caught up with two players already hard at work.

Jason Thomasen and Nic Jeffcoat typify amateur club rugby at its finest.

During the week they’re out and about before the sun comes up working as a farrier and a butcher while twice a week after work, they’re at Hautapu rugby training in Cambridge.

And their reward?

“The smiles on the faces of the people who have supported our club for years,” says Thomasen, 27.

He and 22-year-old Jeffcoat are apprentices – Thomasen into his fourth and final year as a farrier working around the Cambridge district and Jeffcoat into his seventh month of a butcher’s apprenticeship at New World in Te Rapa.

Their names will almost certainly be on the team sheet as Hautapu seeks its 11th Waikato premier club title when they take on Hamilton Marist at Memorial Park in Cambridge at 2.45pm on Saturday.

Hautapu beat Hamilton Old Boys 33-20 in one semifinal while Marist defeated the other Waipā club, Te Awamutu Sports, 43-19 in the other.

Thomasen, a club centurion nicknamed JT, plays in midfield. It is his job to get the ball out to the side’s try scoring machines, wingers Quentin Hill and Waisake Salabieau. He played his part well in the semi with both men scoring two tries apiece.

Thomasen says he is disappointed the team isn’t playing Te Awamutu.

“I actually thought the young talent Te Awamutu has out there, that we would see them in the final.”

Underneath all that is Hautapu’s opening try scorer Quintony Ngatai. Photo: Mary Anne Gill

But the experienced Marist team, with players like former St Peter’s School, Waikato, Brumbies and Kubota Spears first five Wharenui Hawera, are going to be hard to beat. Last time the two clubs met was three weeks ago when Marist won 33-31 in Hamilton in heavy conditions.

“If we can get a dry track, play expansive rugby and set our wingers alight, it should be a good game.”

Jeffcoat plays at hooker and caught the eye of All Blacks coach Ian Foster three weeks ago when he was checking out the form of lock Josh Lord in his return to rugby for Old Boys against Hautapu in pool play.

“That hooker had a great game,” Foster told The News with a twinkle in his eye. Whether that was because Jeffcoat goes out with one of Foster’s daughters remains a mystery.

Both Hautapu players have had stints in Waikato age group sides with Thomasen going on to play in both Mooloo and Chiefs’ development teams.

Ball boys for the Hautapu v Hamilton Old Boys semifinal were: from left, Tom Hatting, 11, Kaipaki School, Conrad Pukape, 10, Leamington School, Ben Hatting, 9, Kaipaki School, Harry Pluck, 11, Cambridge Middle School, Blake McKenzie, 10, Cambridge Primary.

But knee injuries, an upcoming birthday and a baby due in December, has him concentrating on his career as a farrier and commitment to club rugby.

“I now play club rugby for the love of it and just the love of our club. I keep coming back for the people that are actually around our club,” he says.

“What this final does to our community and the people behind Hautapu who have supported it for years, it puts smiles on their faces.

“As an 18-year-old coming into this club, we were battling, played promotion relegation. That’s how far our club has come.”

Thomasen grew up in Morrinsville and then linked up with coaches Sean Hohneck and Andrew Douglas in the St Peter’s School first XV and then at Hautapu.

Douglas, who is now the club’s general manager and won two out of three premier titles as coach, said players like Thomasen and Jeffcoat epitomised the spirit of Hautapu.

“That’s the sort of loyalty the club generates,” he said.

Jeffcoat could be playing anywhere else – he grew up in Raglan and went to Hamilton Boys’ High School but chooses to play for Hautapu.

Even Scottish professional Hamilton Burr, who came to Hautapu four years ago and went on to represent Waikato and the Chiefs, is not about to return home. The 27-year-old lock will play his blazer 50th game for the club in the final after being ruled out of the semifinal with a mild concussion.

The curtain raiser on Saturday features the table topping Hautapu Colts playing second-placed Morrinsville for the hometown advantage in the final.

And the Waipā success does not end there. Leamington will play in the division one and one B finals against Putāruru and Southern United while Te Awamutu Sports takes on Hamilton Marist in the premier B final.