Duncan McKenzie prepared to go the extra mile
Duncan McKenzie, Tasman Rugby Union president. Photo: Neil Wilson.
Duncan McKenzie drives about 4000 kilometres each year in the service of rugby.
This lifelong rugby fan is a life member of the Takaka Rugby Football Club. He played senior rugby here for 30 years and ended up locking the scrum with his son Brent. He has made a major contribution locally but is also serving the sport well beyond the Bay as president of the Tasman Rugby Union.
“A lot of people organised things for me when I was a player and I had a lot of fun,” he explains. “I met a lot of people in the game and now, wherever I go, there’s someone I’ve something in common with. I just want to put something back into the game. It’s all about give and take.”
The Tasman Rugby Union came about through the amalgamation of the Marlborough and Nelson Bays unions when New Zealand Rugby wanted to reduce the number of divisions in its interprovincial competitions. The Makos are Tasman’s team and they’ve been a considerable success, winning far more often than many pundits thought they would. The team went very close to winning the Ranfurly Shield in 2008, losing to Wellington 26-20, and regularly beats major unions.
“I thought, we’ve got to make this work,” said Duncan of the amalgamation. “Like of a lot of neighbouring unions, Marlborough and Nelson Bays have a long-standing rivalry and things haven’t always been all that harmonious. I’d been on the Nelson Bays council of delegates, representing the Takaka club for about 18 years, and that led to a stint on the Nelson Bays board. When Tasman formed, John Goodman was the first president. When the next guy finished being president, I was the president of Nelson Bays so I went forward to be president of Tasman for the next two years. That happened in mid-April and I’ve been even more busy since then.
“Most Saturdays I’m at one of the clubs, flying the flag and letting them know their union cares about them.”
To foster a union-wide approach to club rugby, Duncan and his executive committee are working on introducing a round-robin Tasman Trophy for the Nelson and Marlborough clubs to play for.
“Having the Makos players in the Nelson competition has raised the standard of club rugby there big time,” he said. “Some of the Marlborough clubs are worried because they’re not as strong at the moment, and they might get beaten pretty badly by the Nelson-based clubs. The level is a bit different at the moment but it’s not going to improve if we just do nothing. A full Tasman Trophy round would put all the senior players in the union up against each other and give the selectors a good look at the available talent.”
Duncan says that there are plenty of people wanting to play school-age rugby all around the district. “But clubs everywhere are struggling a bit in the senior grades. Today’s players don’t seem to have that old rugby culture where they make a commitment to their team, and turn up to training and try never to miss a game. I know of a senior coach who used 41 players in the first eight rounds of rugby this year, and only five of those guys played in all eight games. That would have been unheard of once.”
Rural rugby clubs and some town teams are experiencing the same problems, according to Duncan.
“There’s no such thing as a five-day working week made up of eight or nine-hour days any more, and employers are understandably a bit concerned about having their staff away training and playing or coming back injured. A lot of our young players have to leave the Bay to get work just when they’re starting to find their feet in senior football. It’s worse for places like Takaka and Collingwood, too, because of the travel we have to do to play. We’re over the Hill every second week and some of the trips take a very long time.”
Takaka’s senior coach Brian Harris said what Duncan had achieved was incredible—“on and off the field”.
“I coached him 20 years ago and he brought invaluable experience to the side then. Now as an administrator he’s showing the same tremendous commitment. It’s tough to do all the committee work and get around all the clubs, especially from over here. He’s one out of the box. He’s always been prepared to go the extra mile and he does all that service without fuss or fanfare.”
In the course of his entirely voluntary work for rugby, Duncan made four trips over the Hill in the nine days preceding his interview with The GB Weekly. Going the extra mile indeed.
Neil Wilson
The only other Golden Bay person to be president of Nelson Bays Rugby was Murray Strange of Collingwood in 1977. He also went on to become president of New Zealand Rugby Union.
