Stags tap into Olympic champ for inspiration, and make special school visit
“Eric is a great example of someone that has been successful in sport but also successful as who he is as a person.”
The Southland Stags have called on a two-time Olympic champion for inspiration heading into the 2023 National Provincial Championship season.
Champion rower Eric Murray visited Invercargill on Tuesday and Wednesday where he addressed the 2023 Stags squad in the lead up to their competition opener on August 6.
Rugby Southland professional development manager Jason McKenzie also arranged for Murray to visit Ruru School on Wednesday morning as part of a partnership that has developed between Rugby Southland and the special needs school.
McKenzie said Rugby Southland development manager Matt Saunders was looking for someone to speak to the Stags prior to the season and Murray ticked the boxes.
Murray won gold at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games in the coxless pair, alongside Hamish Bond.
“We talked about a guest speaker, and someone that would encompass what we are trying to achieve this year, both on and off the field.
“Eric is a great example of someone that has been successful in sport but also successful as who he is as a person,” Mckenzie said.
“He knows how to win and win repeatedly but he also knows how to look after others off the field and what that does for performance. He was a perfect fit for us,” McKenzie said.
Right from the start of Saunders’ tenure as director of rugby he urged everyone attached to Southland rugby to ditch the excuses.
Saunders said that was a message that Murray hammered home and he delivered it in a way where it resonated with the players.
“They won 71 races in a row, and they weren’t on song for 71 races. They just found a way when they had reasons and excuses to lose, they didn’t use them,” Saunders said.
“They could have easily have blamed it on something else, but they just chose not to… That’s what our theme is along the lines of.”
Murray talked to the entire squad before holding a separate session with the leaders in the Stags group.
McKenzie said arranging for Murray to also visit Ruru School was about giving back as part of the unique partnership.
For close to a decade many Southland rugby players have worked at Ruru School as teacher aides.
The 9am to 3pm employment works well for the players training schedule. Ruru School is also flexible in providing the players with time off during the NPC season.
Included in the long list of players who have spent time working at Ruru School over the years is current All Black prop Ethan de Groot.
It works well for the players as they chase their rugby dreams, but principal Erin Cairns said the partnership very much had a big plus side for the school as well.
Cairns said it can be challenging finding male teacher aides and the young rugby players do a great job with the kids with special needs.
“It’s absolutely amazing, they are such great role models. It’s great with the support they can give,” Cairns said.
Viliame Fine and Blair Ryall are two of the Stags players who were working at Ruru School this year before this month focusing fulltime on rugby.
They joined Murray during his visit to Ruru on Wednesday.
Fine had previously worked at a similar school - Sara Cohen School in Dunedin - before shifting south fulltime this year.
Ryall had previously been involved in building work and said there had been a significant plus side mixing employment at Ruru School with his rugby aspirations this year.
“Obviously the hours give you time to go to the gym in the morning, go home and have breakfast, or whatever, then go to work. And then you finish at a reasonable time and you’ve got a couple of hours before you go to training.
“It’s also obviously not physical work, so you’ve got enough energy to train.”
But on top of all of that, Ryall said he loved the actual job, getting to work with the pupils at Ruru School.
“I’ve definitely found it super rewarding and really makes you appreciate just how lucky most of us are.
“It’s probably the most enjoyable job I’ve had, just the interactions,” Ryall said.
It was a comment Fine agreed with.
For Murray, his visit to Ruru School on Wednesday was somewhat personal.
“Because my boy has special needs and I’m patron of Autism New Zealand, I thought I would come and see what everyone is doing…. [Ruru] is a great school.”
Murray visited different classrooms at Ruru School where he was quizzed by some pupils about his rowing days.
He also jumped at a chance to read a book to the pupils in one classroom - and he did a great job it should be pointed out.
Murray was initially planning to also hold a session with family of Ruru School pupils, as well as staff, on Wednesday evening but he had to cut his trip to Invercargill a little bit short to return north for a funeral.
It was Murray’s first visit to Invercargill.
“It’s been nice. It’s been interesting because I’d just never been here before. I’ve got mates from here, and rowers from here that I know, but I had just never had an excuse to come down this way. So, when Jason invited me to come and talk to the Stags I said, ‘why not’.”
McKenzie also took Murray for a quick trip to the Oreti River where both the Invercargill Rowing Club and Waihopai Rowing Club are based.
They are the clubs where his rowing buddies such as Storm and Jade Uru, and Nathan Cohen began their rowing journeys.
Meanwhile, the Southland Stags will play Otago in Dunedin on Friday in their final preseason hitout.
They will then take on Waikato at Rugby Park in Invercargill on Sunday, August 6 in their season opener.