Plenty on the line for Zino in his 100th Premier match against the Axemen this Saturday

James Zino on the charge against the Upper Hutt Rams in a recent Swindale Shield match. Photo: Caroline Lewis.

• By Steven White

James Zino hopes he doesn’t lose in his 100^th Premier match this coming Saturday.

The repercussions could be painful. “I have a bet with my good mate and flatmate and Wellington Axemen flanker Tom Robertson that whoever loses the match this weekend has to get his ear pierced,” he winced.

“It is worse than two years ago when we agreed that the loser would get the tips of their hair bleach-blonded, and thankfully we won that one, so I didn’t have to do that. But that was more of a comfortable win for us, this time it could be a lot closer so I’m hoping to win!”

All going well, Zino, along with prop Tui Tuia, will play their 100^th Premier matches for Marist St Pat’s this Saturday when MSP and the Wellington Axemen meet at Hataitai Park in Round 13 of the Swindale Shield.

For Zino, the milestone against the Axemen is also poignant for him as he was an Axemen junior – joining MSP after school being a St Pat’s Town old boy and also because his former First XV school coach Brendon Reidy was now coaching the MSP Premiers.

Through plenty of highs and lows, Zino’s name has been a consistent one in MSP line-ups over the past few seasons. From having his name read out last in classroom roll situations in school, to being one of the first in MSP teamlists this season where he leads from the front as lock/blindside flanker. He has also scored seven tries this year so is always close to the action.

It also seems like the milestone of 100 games is a long time coming for Zino, but that is because he has also perhaps played as many matches for the Premier 2s as he has for the Premiers since his debut for the club in 2013.

“I was captain of the MSP Premier 2 team in one of those years when we won the competition.

“What was great about that team was it as a cool bunch of guys and I was playing with a lot of my best mates – definitely one of my career highlights.”

In 2018 this side won 13/13 in the Harper Lock Shield and scored 720 points and conceded 181, to win with 63 points on the table. They went on to beat Ories 32-21 in the Ed Chaney Cup final.  They backed this up with another winning season in 2019.

In 2020 Zino was in the Premier wider squad and played four matches of MSP’s winning Swindale Shield campaign, this side winning with a 11/2 record.

In 2021, Zino played in the Jubilee Cup final at lock against Tawa, in a game they were soundly beaten in. What was quickly forgotten in the wake of that 36-7 loss was that the previous two weeks they had beaten Ories 18-13 and Norths 48-36 to get there, with Zino a try scorer in that latter game.

“That season in 2021 was quite a fun season, because of how close the team became because of what happened in the sevens the previous year, there is nothing like a bit of adversity to bring the team together and that kind of gelled us closer together. We thought we are not going to get any favours from many people at the moment, so we have just to get stuck into it.”

Looking around his teammates now, Zino is one of the longest serving members of the side, others include Isaia Petelo, who has his 200-game milestone coming up, and prop Tui Tuia who he is celebrating his 100^th game with this weekend. Tuia is a few years older than Zino, coming out of St Pat’s Town about the same time as Zino started in 2008. Ryan Dafel is another player who could be put in the veteran category.

“There was a phase about three-four years ago when I was one of the younger players, now I am one of the older players.

“The club did a lot to me when I was younger, so I feel like I am in the phase of my career where I am trying to give back, to help out the club get back to where we have been and where we want to be.

“We have got quite a young side out there but it’s a breath of fresh air with the energy they all bring.”

A new players coming through is St Pat’s Silverstream’s Preston Moananu, who has been in good form alongside Zino and should feature in upcoming Wellington representative teams.

Despite the team confirmed to be Hardham Cup-bound this year with a record of four wins and eight losses, they are not far off the pace.

“There have been flashes of brilliance.

“This year is probably one of the closest seasons all-round in a while. Other than Ories, who are having a blinder, what we are seeing is a win or a loss will send a team up and down the rankings a few places in one weekend.

“For us it has been really close in a lot of those games, and then it has really blown out against us. I think it has been about trying to stay in games for 80 minutes and when it gets tough we can fall back on what we are learning in these losses.”

Against Hutt Old Boys Marist two weeks ago MSP trailed 24-6 at halftime but fought back in the first 20 minutes of the second half and scored through Zino himself to close the gap to 24-13. Then the Eagles rallied and scored some late tries to win 45-13.

“Another example is against Johnsonville, we were ahead and they ran in a couple of late tries to win [22-20].  That is a theme for us, it was just not quite gelling for the whole match – 50 minutes of awesome rugby can be undone by 30 minutes of shutting off.”

Zino has had two stints living overseas.

“After the 2012 school season in my last year at school I went to Arras in France on exchange and lived and played over there for their season.

“I then had a season away playing for Blaydon near Newcastle in England.” That was after the 2016 Wellington season until the middle of 2017.

Outside of rugby, Zino works fulltime as Business Manager for recruitment and training agency Rāranga.

With the Wellington Axemen having their 9-point points deduction rescinded this week it means they jump back ahead of Avalon into 13^th place.

MSP are currently 11^th, but if they beat the Axemen it is likely they will move to 10^th ahead of Wainuiomata who might struggle to topple Ories, meaning that MSP and Wellington could be meeting next weekend too in the 10 v 13 Hardham Cup round one match.

That is jumping ahead of course, and for Zino and his teammates it is about putting together a that complete 80-minute performance he was talking about and on a personal level doing it for his ear to prevent it being pierced next week.

Wellington Axemen v Marist St Pat’s, Hataitai Park, Saturday 2.45pm.