150 years: A small-town rugby club's plucky survival
“We are lucky to have been able to stick together for [150 years]."
The exact number depends on who you talk to, but Otautau’s population is in the hundreds, not thousands.
Just keep that thought in mind when you go about reading this piece which outlines the remarkable longevity of the Otautau Rugby Club.
During the weekend, the Otautau Rugby Club has celebrated 150 years of existence.
It is just the third Southland rugby club to blow out 150 candles after the Invercargill Blues and Riverton rugby clubs both celebrated their 150th birthdays last year.
This is about more than just rugby, it’s about an important heartbeat in the makeup of a small but plucky Western Southland township.
The rugby club has provided Otautau with a hub for the community, helping build connections and friendships for 150 years now.
“For as long as I can remember, that is exactly how it was,” Lindsay Gutsell - who has been involved in putting together the 150th celebrations - told The Tribune.
“Come Saturdays, and the clubrooms were always pretty much full after the matches.”
“I suppose it’s like any sports club in the community, whether it be the golf club, bowls club, or rugby club.”
The pub was established first in Otautau, before the formation of the Otautau Rugby Football Club in 1875.
The first recorded game took place in July 1876 against the Invercargill Club. It was a tough old day out for the Otautau lads, losing 68-2.
Although they weren’t put off. A return match was organised, and Winton was selected as the venue.
That was the first rugby game played in Winton.
The Otautau players made the 70km journey by horseback for a game that lasted three hours. The result is unknown.
The first significant success story for Otautau came in 1910 when the club won its first Western Banner - the symbol of supremacy for rugby in Western Southland.
The 1940s and 1950s then provided the Otautau Rugby Club with its golden era. It included winning the Western Banner six years straight from 1946 to 1951, and again in 1953 and 1955.
At one-point, Otautau had three players in the Southland representative forward pack - Jim Millar, Jim Stuck, and Ritchie Ballam - as well as Jack McKenzie at halfback.
1975 is regarded as Otautau’s greatest year since the 1940s and 1950s domination, not just because the club celebrated its centennial that year.
Otautau won both the Western Banner and Central-Western competition in 1975 and fielded a host of Southland players. Ewan Taylor, Roger Jackman, Ken McRae, Jeff Gardner, and Dennis Hazlett.
Otautau has had five All Black triallists over the years - Stuck, Ballam, Millar, McKenzie, and McRae.
The club has never directly provided an All Black, although the town did bask in the glory of “Scott” Baird, Les Cupples, and Russell Watt who were Otautau lads but made the All Blacks while playing elsewhere.
Since the club’s centennial in 1975, its survival has been just as big of an accomplishment as providing any representative players or winning titles.
The rugby landscape has changed dramatically during the past 50 years, which has handed further challenges to the survival of smaller rural clubs.
“We are lucky to have been able to stick together for [150 years]. Sure, in the later years there have been amalgamations, or combinations with Waiau Star at one stage, and of course Ohai-Nightcaps, but you do what you do to keep your club alive,” Gutsell said.
In the senior ranks, Otautau has linked with Ohai-Nightcaps to continue to put out a team in Southland’s Division Two competition.
The Otautau-Ohai-Nightcaps team marked the occasion with a strong performance on Saturday beating Waiau Star 40-19.
Otautau also still has its own junior teams, while on Saturday, as part of the 150th celebrations, an Otautau women’s team took to the field for the first time when they played a game against Mossburn.
The majority of the Otautau women’s team hadn’t played rugby before but wanted to take the field as part of the 150th jubilee.
“It’s an iconic game and it’s drawn a lot of people into it,” Gutsell said about the willingness of many newbie players wanting to be part of Otautau’s first women’s game.
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A jubilee dinner on Saturday night was one of the highlights of the 150th celebrations with former Scottish international Brendan Laney the MC.
Former Samoan prop Mika Mika was one of the special guests, as well as former Black Ferns first five Jacqui Stewart nee Apiata.
Southland’s most capped rugby player Josh Bekhuis also spoke at the function.
The Bekhuis family is well-connected to Otautau and the town’s rugby club.
(Premier Women)
Pioneer 60, Blues 12
Star 46, Wakatipu 0
Marist/Midlands 109, Lower Mataura Valley 0
(Division One)
Wyndham 28, Waikaka/Riversdale 27
Edendale 29, Tokanui 11
Bluff 33, Te Anau 17
Pioneer 25, Albion 24
(Division Two)
Otautau-Ohai-Nightcaps 40, Waiau Star 19
Mossburn 38, Mataura 28
Midlands 92, Wright's Bush 24
Riverton 25, Wakatipu 7
Waikiwi 43, Central Pirates 12
Drummond-Limehills-Star 26, Collegiate 0
Woodlands 22, Star 12
Marist 37, Blues 24