You are here
Home > Club Rugby > Hauiti-Parapara to play 100th match on Tawa’s Old Timers’ Day

Hauiti-Parapara to play 100th match on Tawa’s Old Timers’ Day

Kemara Hauiti-Parapara gets a pass away for Tawa in their Jubilee Cup playoff match against Petone last July. On Saturday he plays his 100th match for Tawa. 

  • By Steven White 

On Saturday, Wellington Lions halfback and two-time Jubilee Cup winner Kemara Hauiti-Parapara  will run out to play his 100th Premier club match for Tawa on their Old Timers’ Day against Johnsonville.

Hauiti-Parapara made his debut as the then incumbent New Zealand Schools halfback out of Wellington College at the start of 2016, and has played seven seasons for his adopted club (not counting 2022 when he was overseas in France).

Perhaps our last question we put to him when speaking this week is the most pertinent when summing up his commitment to the club, then and now.

Why did he join Tawa?

“For me it was about the people. I remember Steve So’oialo gave me a call one day and said do you want to come by and see the club? I went along with my mum and the people were honest from the outset.

“They said to me Kem we can’t offer you anything, we can’t give you money, we can’t give you a car, but if you come here and work hard, we will make things happen.”

That genuineness and support is the reason I joined and it is the reason why I still love them and I have never left.”

“I’m also now one of the oldest in the team,” he joked.

“Myself, Randall Bishop and Hemi Fermanis are the only ones left from my first year in 2016. Although I am working on trying to get Tito Ioane to come back and re-join us soon!”

Not that Hauiti-Parapara is old – he has recently turned 27, so there’s a lot of rugby left in him should he stay fit and hungry. But that is jumping ahead.

For now, much focus is on the here and now and a big match against Johnsonville on Saturday to mark his milestone.

“I think playing 100 games anywhere is a special achievement, and to be doing it on Old Timers’ Day is even better. Hopefully I can get to catch up with some of the old boys who I have played alongside in many of those games and celebrate a bit.”

Heading into Saturday’s seventh round match, both Tawa (two wins and in 10th) and Johnsonville (three wins and in eighth) are a bit off the pace and both needing big runs. Last Saturday, Tawa missed out to Hutt Old Boys University 25-26 while Johnsonville beat competition battlers Avalon 36-29.

“Last week was my first game back, but I feel we have lots of potential and I can see what we are capable of, So the boys are more hungry to show this and press for some wins in the coming weeks.”

He missed the first five rounds because he has been in Dunedin on a short-term injury cover contract. A fortnight ago, he played alongside his younger first cousin Jacob Waikari-Jones (ex-Wellington College) for the University club.

This followed his spending pre-season with the Hurricanes – and winning their annual Surf to Peak pre-season race just before the Christmas break.

This year’s pre-season Hurricanes Surf to Peak winner.

Both his club and representative career is filled with highlights.

Starting on the club front, it’s those two Jubilee Cup wins five years apart that stand out in his career so far.

The first in 2016 was achieved under the personal backdrop of losing his father to illness.

“My father passed away the day after we won the final,” he said.

“I lived about two minutes from Jerry Collins Stadium where the final was played. We won and I pretty much went straight home to spend time with my family.

“It was like that the whole season – he was in hospital throughout most of it but he got to see me play one game. He came to the ground and watched us play MSP and they had Jeff Toomaga-Allen and Victor Vito playing for them. He didn’t last long though; it was too cold for him. Vito ran through me that day too.”

For the final, Tawa TV organised a live free of their broadcast to his hospital bed. Veteran wing Junior Togia scored two tries as Tawa beat MSP 24-20.

The second in 2021 was an emphatic 36-7 win over Marist St Pat’s and Hauiti-Parapara had a blinder, directing play and personally scoring two tries and kicking two conversions and four penalties for a personal haul of 26 points.

Try time for Hauiti-Parapara in the 2021 Jubilee Cup final. 

A proud performance, but it was the overall run to the final that Hauiti-Parapara remembers fondly.

“Everyone remembers the final, but it is the lead-up to that day that sticks in my mind.

“We had played Petone [6 v 7] match in the first knockout game and we ended up beating them [27-7] and then we played a quarterfinal against Oriental-Rongotai and won that.

The 14-9 win over Ories was played in torrential rain and on a flooded Polo Ground, with Hauiti-Parapara kicking a freakish penalty that he judged to perfection in the rain and crosswind.

“That was probably the worst weather I have ever played in my life. There was a point in that game where their winger was in open space and on a dry day he would have been gone but the flood was so deep he couldn’t run and we ended up catching him!”

The Polo Ground flooded the day Tawa beat Ories 14-9 on route to the 2021 Jubilee Cup title.

Then we played Hutt Old Boys Marist in the semi-final and put a good score on them [29-18] and then the win in the last match against MSP was the cherry on top.”

“So it was that whole run to the final that was most memorable for me. We got on a roll, and we knew heading into that final that MSP were going to have to be pretty good to stop us.”

Then there is his not insignificant representative rugby career to date.

To date, he has played a combined 64 NPC matches for the Wellington Lions (54) and Otago (10).

His one and only Super Rugby match was playing for the Hurricanes against the British and Irish Lions in 2017.

“That came really unexpectedly because I was in Georgia with the NZ U20s at the time and we had just won the final and one of the managers came up to me and said Kem you might want to take it easy celebrating because you are going to be training with the Hurricanes when we land back home.

“I got home and was training with the Hurricanes and wasn’t expecting anything when I was sitting in the team meeting when they were naming the side to take on the Lions. Chris Boyd read out my name and I was shocked.”

The match was a thriller as the Hurricanes fought back from 7-23 down at halftime to draw 31-31.

He also spent half a northern season from the beginning of 2022 playing for Oyonnax in France.

“That was a cool experience, the furthest I have been overseas by myself, and in a country that doesn’t speak English. But once I found my feet it was good.”

He returned home and moved down to Dunedin to play the 2022 NPC for Otago.

“I played my 50th NPC game for Otago against Wellington in Wellington. The night before the game Otago, as is tradition, made a congratulatory video with family and friends for me. The video they made for me was pretty much the whole Wellington team congratulating me. All my best friends playing for the other team making a video congratulating me the night before the game!”

Growing up, Hauiti-Parapara was also an accomplished softballer, one season helping Wellington win the National U17 title and making the New Zealand side in the same age group.

He also jokes he’s a part-time musician for hire.

“Last year we had a team band down at the Highlanders and it was myself on the drums, Connor Garden-Bachop on the guitar and coach Riki Flutey was lead singer. We were pretty decent too! We had a team dinner at a pub one night and us three played on the instruments for the team for an hour and a half.”

With Hauiti-Parapara back at Lyndhurst Park, and with the possibility of both Hugo Pummer (Highlanders) and PJ Sheck (Blues) coming back in later rounds to boost the ranks, he could yet be playing to the beat of a third Jubilee Cup title at the end of July.

Tawa v Johnsonville for the Carman Cup, Lyndhurst Park, Saturday 2.45pm.

Below: Hauiti-Parapara scores against Old Boys University in a match in 2019. 

Similar Articles

Leave a Reply

Top