20 seasons covering club rugby… Where did that time go?

There’s been a few seasons during the past 20 when I thought that just might be it. I could contently do something else with my weekends during the winter months.

2023 is the 20th season for Logan Savory covering club rugby.

It started in 2004 with a mundane wrap of an Eastern Hawks-Star Southland premier club rugby fixture.

It was April 2004 to be precise. I was a journalism student and was asked to help The Southland Times sports department with their club rugby coverage.

They were the glory days of local sports journalism you might say.

There were three full-time sports reporters at The Southland Times, a full-time racing reporter, and enough in the budget to pay the likes of me to help with things like club rugby.

At that time there were three of us covering club rugby each weekend.

How the world has changed, but a deeper analysis of that is probably best suited for another day.

That couple of hundred-word game wrap of the Hawks-Star game in 2004 for me was the start of a journey that’s just dawned on me has now reached the 20-season mark.

I think I’m right to say 45-year-old Woodlands hooker Jason Rutledge and Blues flanker Daniel Townson are the only remaining players featuring in Southland’s premier competition from the time I penned my first article.

I’ve watched the likes of John Hardie play his first game of premier club rugby as a teenager, before some 14 years later reflecting with him on his retirement from a career that included a stint playing for Scotland.

I recall covering club games that included Matt Saunders, David Hall and James Wilson. The trio now hold the Rugby Southland director of rugby and Stags co-coaches roles respectively.

There’s been a few seasons during the past 20 when I thought that just might be it. I could contently do something else with my weekends during the winter months.

I was made redundant as a sports reporter at The Southland Times in 2018 and it seemed inevitable my strange love affair with club rugby was over - at least as a writer.

As it turned out, for a season I ended up being enlisted by Allied Press to cover it for The Otago Daily Times and Southland Express.

A couple of years later I returned to The Southland Times as a general reporter, covering things like council and other matters that were as far from club rugby as you could get.

That felt as if it was another likely finish point. I’d had a good run with club rugby.

But I really must love club rugby. When the season rolled around I decided to ask the then-editor if some time could be carved off for me to cover club rugby for the paper, amongst my other priorities. I was given the green light.

On the odd occasion, on a wet Saturday afternoon, I questioned my sanity for making that request.

But those moments were rare.

There’s something special about club rugby that for me remains today, despite many declaring during the past 20 seasons that the grassroots game is dead.

Heck, I myself have done just that at times. And in parts, there’s been plenty of truth attached to it. Rugby has its troubles.

Although there hasn’t been the mass collapse of clubs which you’d think might have occurred by now in an ever-changing sporting landscape.

We’ve got close to 30 rugby clubs for a population of just over 100,000. It doesn’t really stack up or make sense. But it is not for me or anyone else to tell clubs to close their doors.

Tokanui is a topical example of when an obituary can be inked earlier than it should have.

I recall talking to Tokanui Rugby Club president Daryl Johnstone five or six years ago when things looked bleak for the club. It seemed inevitable that just maybe the club had served its purpose as playing numbers dwindled.

Fast forward the clock to 2023 and the club is in great heart. They are flush with playing numbers for its two senior teams and also has junior teams.

The club’s made it to 100 years and with that the gloom of five or six years ago has lifted.

The true heroes - in my eyes anyway - in club rugby are the coaches.

I say that because I’d hate to try to add up the number of calls I’ve made to coaches over the past 20 seasons - often on Sunday mornings - and for them to be happy to share their thoughts on games.

Remember these coaches are volunteers. They give up their Tuesday and Thursday nights to run trainings, and almost entire Saturday on game day, and then are happy to take a call on a Sunday morning from me for a chat.

Their willingness to promote their club, and the sport in general, shouldn’t be taken for granted. I never have.

Club rugby is a special part of the makeup of the Southland community and I’ve loved being part of that. It’s not the bright lights of Super Rugby or the All Blacks, but it’s often where you’ll find rugby’s real stars. On and off the field.

My latest attempt to continue to provide club rugby coverage is through this new venture The Southland Tribune.

This is an awkward sentence to write. But if you see value in the coverage how about joining The Southland Tribune as a paid subscriber? If you haven’t already, of course.

Enjoy your Saturday, whatever piece of club rugby paradise you may be visiting.