Galbraith Shield final: Curtain to come down on five-year Southland stint
"My partner and I had our baby girl down here [in Southland] as well, so it’s become a very special place to us.”
Isaac Te Tamaki will sign off on a five-year rugby stint in Southland on Saturday.
The centre will captain Pirates-Old Boys in the 2023 Southland premier competition Galbraith Shield final against the Eastern-Northern Barbarians at Rugby Park in Invercargill.
He’ll then jet off with his young family to France to take up a two-year contract with Division two French club Valaence Romas Drome Rugby.
The 28-year-old will depart as a popular member of the Southland rugby community.
He is excited about the opportunity to live and play in France. Although Te Tamaki stresses it’s far from his thoughts just at the moment.
“We’ve been wanting to get overseas for a few years now, so when the opportunity came I had to jump at it with both hands.
“But obviously for me right now, all I’m worried about right now is hopefully putting in a good performance to bring the Galbraith Shield home to POB for the off-season.”
Te Tamaki has been a central figure in helping transform Pirates-Old Boys in recent seasons. Both through his playing ability and leadership.
“I came to POB because I had a few good mates that I had known for a long time in the team, that’s what drew me to the club.
“And then slowly we worked our way from being a team that was just going out trying to compete to a team that was working away to compete for a championship last year, and then same again going into this year.
“So, it’s been awesome seeing how the club has grown over the past few years.
Te Tamaki joined the Southland Stags in 2018 for what was initially planned to be a single NPC season.
He had been playing for the New Zealand Sevens team but wanted to turn his focus to the 15s game.
At that point in time, his home province Waikato was full up, in terms of its NPC squad, so he jumped at the option to play for Southland in 2018.
He then moved permanently to Southland with his partner the following year and has remained here since.
“It’s been awesome, the people here are awesome. We’ve got some incredibly close friends down here.
“Obviously not having any family down this way it was really important for us to build those connections, especially away from rugby. It’s important to step away from rugby and do other things.
“And also, my partner and I had our baby girl down here as well, so it’s become a very special place to us.”
Te Tamaki started with the Stags as a winger before moving into the centre. Throughout his five years and 40 games for the Stags he has often been mentioned as a Super Rugby player in the waiting.
His Stags coach Dale MacLeod became increasingly frustrated Te Tamaki wasn’t handed a go at the next level.
“I think its always frustrating, because that was the goal coming down here to try and pick up a Super Rugby contract,” Te Tamaki said.
“I’ve been in and around environments as injury replacements, and that sort of stuff, but in the end of the day I could be playing as good as I possibly could and it’s up to the coaches to make that decision.
“As a rugby player, who wants to play professionally, you’ve just got to accept that. There’s not much you can do about it. We’ve given it a go for a good few years and it hasn’t come through and that’s just part of the game.
“Now we’ve been fortunate enough to pick up a fulltime gig in France so am going to play over there. I would have loved to have played Super Rugby but it wasn’t to be.
“I’ll put my attention to this final and then go and enjoy a few seasons in France.”
Te Tamaki is part of a unique Pirates-Old Boys backline at the moment which includes three traditional first five-eight option, and a fourth if you lob in Jaye Thompson into that discussion.
The return of Greg Dyer from Spain last month has seen him take up the No 10 jersey for Pirates-Old Boys. He kicked a drop goal in extra time to lift the club to a semifinal 27-24 victory over Woodlands.
Kaea Nikora-Balloch had been the first choice first five-eighth throughout much of the season, but on Dyer’s return he has been shuffled out to second five-eighth.
It has also meant Jaye Thompson has been shifted back to fullback.
Pirates-Old Boys also picked up the services of Japanese player Rintaro Maruyama this season who is likely to be Beauden Barrett’s first five-eighth understudy at Toyota Verblitz next season.
Maruyama has been playing on the wing for Pirates-Old Boys in recent weeks.
“We’ve got players who have to play out of position just with the way our team is at the moment, but there are no complaints they are happy to be there and do what they have to on game day. They just do it for the benefit of the team, which is awesome,” te Tamaki said.
Saturday’s Galbraith Shield club rugby final is scheduled to kick-off at 2.30pm.
thanks Iaasc for your great service to the stags all the best for the future