Pat Quin remembered for his generosity and love of local rugby

• By Steven White and contributors

Pat Quin, who passed away last week, had a long association with many clubs, teams and people in the Wellington rugby community, including this website with the company he founded Rob Law Max being a key supporter and sponsor of this website over the past decade.

As one of many posters wrote in Facebook comments last week “I had huge respect for him, and he loved the club scene for sure and wanted it to thrive.”

Another told Club rugby that “Pat was a man of many talents, in both the sporting and business world. He was straight up, honest and up-front, but also charismatic, encouraging and extremely loyal and genuinely cared about people and the game of rugby.”

We sought his advice on several occasions as to the direction of this website and didn’t always come away with what we were hoping to hear.

Such as the time we went to him asking him for his support for our grandiose plans to expand Club Rugby to Canterbury. He listened intently, then changed the subject and started a long discussion about the state of play with the Swindale Shield and who was playing well and who wasn’t.

After about half of this he came full circle back to the reason I was there and gruffly shot the idea down in flames and sent me on my way – emphasising the need to keep concentrating on Wellington!

Thomas (Patrick) Quin began his rugby career in 1959 at the prestige rugby school of St Bernadette’s, Naenae along with lifelong friends Mark and Terry Jordan. They started in the Bantam Division for Hutt Valley Marist.

From there Patrick progressed to St Bernard’s Intermediate then to college and played for the First XV in 1970.

On leaving college he rejoined Hutt Valley Marist and played in the U19 division and the following year the Third Grade 1st Division.

In 1972 he travelled to the UK with Mark Jordan and played rugby with Centaurs in London for two years.

He travelled back to Sydney and linked up with “South Sydney NZ” Rugby Club where he coached for two years before moving to the Easts Club where he coached for a further two years.

On his return Lower Hutt he was approached by Hutt Valley Marist to coach the Senior 3rd side which in 1991 won the JDR Cup.

In 1992 the team played in the Senior 1st Competition until the amalgamation with Hutt Old Boys.

When Hutt Old Boys and Hutt Valley Marist merged Patrick and Russell Keown became joint Club Captains for a number of years until his move to Plimmerton and business commitments took more of his time.

One of HOBM’s favourite sons of the modern era and starting halfback in their 2007 Jubilee Cup win Nick Risdon spoke on behalf of his Eagles contemporaries at the Eagles and thanked Pat for his support and ongoing encouragement and generosity.

Risdon also attended St Bernard’s College, where Pat had a direct influence on his early career.

“I first met him when he was my coach at St Benard’s in 1999. I was a fifth former playing second-five in the U55kg because I was tiny. His son Tom was the same year as my brother Jason [two years younger] and they were in the team too.

“There was a St Bernard’s rugby 75^th anniversary book launch a few years ago and Earl Va’a and myself did a Q and A and one of the questions I got asked was who was your most influential coach? My response was Pat Quin.

“He was the first coach that believed in me and thought that I had what it takes to play higher rugby. He was the first one that said to me you are small but you have a good rugby brain, and he went and spoke to the First XV coach and said you have to keep an eye on this guy, even though he is playing 12 he would be a good halfback to promote. He also went and spoke to the Wellington U16s coaches and told them the same.

“The following year I made the First XV, so this emphasises how influential Pat was with my early career, playing U55kgs and then jumping straight to First XV.”

Pat’s involvement with St Bernard’s was ongoing. He was one of the school’s original First XV sponsors through Rob Law Max, ongoing to this day.

Risdon said that in recent years Pat was always up for a chat whenever they saw each other.

“He was just a really nice guy who gave a lot back, helping others and assisting the game.”

In 2008 and 2009 Pat moved down the motorway to coach the Johnsonville Terrahawks team for both those seasons.

He made the move as coach along side his son and a group of his mates from Paremata-Plimmerton.

Ben Cathro was captain of that team both years that Pat was coach and spoke highly of him. “Pat was well-liked and respected and a generous man, opening up his house for the players on such occasions as end of year functions. He will be missed by all those who met and knew him at Johnsonville.”

Rob Law Max also sponsors the Wellington Lions openside flanker’s jersey, with two recent/current wearers, Du Plessis Kirifi and Peter Lakai, now All Blacks.

Pat was a Vice-President of the WRFU in 1998 and 1999, and he served on the Rugby Board as HOBM’s delegate between 1999-2001.

He was a big supporter of New Zealand Marist rugby and was on the board of the New Zealand Marist Rugby Executive.

He was also passionate about sevens.

As recently as three years ago in one of our meetings he was lamenting the apparent demise of sevens rugby and talking fondly of the former Local Point end of year club sevens series that he was a big supporter of.

He was HR Manager for the Wellington World Rugby International Sevens Tournament that was held at the all-new Wellington Stadium in 2000 and annually until its demise in 2017.

Risdon has fond members of working at this tournament in its early years, through Pat.

“We used to be runners and general assistance around the venue. We got an all-access pass and got to watch the first couple of finals down on the field.”

Perhaps this year’s American Ambassador’s 7s tournament coming up in November could be played in his honour, or a trophy called the Pat Quin Memorial Cup could be presented as the Player of the Tournament?

He spent time in England in his formative years living and working in London and in Sydney prior to returning to Lower Hutt and working as a commercial cleaning contractor which morphed into a labour hire business and became Quin Workforce.

He sold that to AWF in 2004 and subsequently ran Max Recruitment. He acquired Rob Law Consulting and combined the two into Rob Law Max – becoming a huge supporter of rugby in the region over many years.

In modern times, he was living in Plimmerton when Hutt Old Boys Marist won the Jubilee Cup in 2007 and again in 2014, while he was there during Paremata-Plimmerton’s ascent to Premier status and on to winning the Swindale Shield in 2023 and making the Jubilee Cup final that same year.