The Star: March 07, 2019

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday March 7 2019 37
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in brief
Waimairi v Cashmere
interclub tennis final
Waimairi will look to end
Cashmere’s dominance in the
Canterbury interclub tennis
competition when they host the
five-time defending champions
in Saturday’s final. Waimairi
have been unbeaten in the
competition to date. The final,
which will be contested over
two doubles and four singles
matches, begins at 2.30pm.
Mainland Premier
League kicking off
Cashmere Technical begin
their defence of the Mainland
Premier League when the
competition kicks off at the
weekend. The opening round
on Saturday will see Ferrymead
Bays host Cashmere Technical,
Selwyn United host Nomads
United, FC Twenty 11 host
Coastal Spirit and Nelson
Suburbs host Western AFC.
Canty’s chance to
climb four-day
cricket table
Canterbury will go into their
four-day Plunket Shield match
against Auckland on Saturday
with a chance to move into
second in the competition.
Following their nine-wicket win
over Wellington at Hagley Oval
over the weekend, Canterbury
are now just one point behind
Auckland and 13 behind
competition leaders Central
Districts. The match will be at
Mainpower Oval in Rangiora.
Tall Blacks guard
joins Rams NBL roster
The Canterbury Rams have
signed Tall Blacks guard Luke
Aston for the NBL season.
Aston played for the Southland
Sharks in the last two NBL
seasons after a stint playing
college basketball in the United
States at Brigham Young
University-Hawaii. In 2017, he
played for the Tall Blacks at the
FIBA Asia Cup where the team
finished fourth.
Read announces he will leave New Zealand to play in Japan
ALL BLACKS captain and
Crusaders centurion Kieran
Read has confirmed this will
be his swansong year in New
Zealand rugby.
The 33-year-old will join Japanese
club Toyota Verblitz next
year after 13 seasons of professional
rugby in New Zealand.
Original Crusader mentors young stars
• By Gordon Findlater
SINCE PLAYING in the
Crusaders first ever match,
former hooker Matt Sexton has
never stepped away from the
sport he loves.
The 48-year-old currently
works for the New Zealand
Rugby Union, overseeing the
next generation of All Blacks
in his role as high performance
player development manager.
Sexton (right) played in the
Crusaders first Super Rugby
match – a 26-27 loss to the
Chiefs in Hamilton on March
3, 1996. The team recorded just
two wins in their opening campaign
and finished dead last.
“We call ourselves the forgotten
Crusaders team. I don’t
think we even had a team photo
that year,” said Sexton.
“We learnt from our mistakes,
we made a lot of them. We probably
didn’t adapt as quickly as
other teams and we had a horrific
run of injuries in that first
year.”
He went on to make 36 appearances
for the franchise and
was part of the Super Rugby
three-peat from 1998-2000.
“I think self-belief was a big
thing for the group . . . in terms
of the talent in the team, we
weren’t the best, but we had
really good character and also
had really good characters,” said
Sexton.
He pinpointed Norm Maxwell,
Norm Berryman and Afato
So’oalo, the latter of which was
somewhat lucky to have survived
a trip to South Africa.
“We nearly lost (So’oalo) in
Bloemfontein. We were at a
“Every young rugby player
in New Zealand dreams of the
opportunities I have had to
represent the All Blacks and the
Crusaders, and I know I’ll look
back at the end of the year with
a great deal of pride to have
worn those jerseys for as long as
I have,” Read said yesterday.
cheetah sanctuary and he had
got the ‘dick of the day’ award,
which meant he was wearing a
Crusaders cape. The cheetah was
being walked past after everyone
gave it a pat and all of a sudden
the wind blew the cape and the
cheetah launched itself with
claws at Afato. Luckily for him,
he was pretty quick off the mark
and managed to get a metre
away before the claws came
through the back of the cape,”
said Sexton.
“It took about 5min for them
to unpick the cheetah’s claws
from the cape while he was
standing there . . . it would have
taken his calf off.”
Before his professional
rugby career, Sexton trained as a
teacher at Canterbury University
and took a position at Marian
“My family and I are looking
forward to an overseas experience
and Japan presents an awesome
opportunity to immerse
ourselves in Japanese culture as
part of the Toyota club.”
Said Crusaders coach Scott
Robertson: “His contribution
to the Crusaders over the past
•Over the Super Rugby season, The Star
will look back each week at some of the
identities who graced the Crusaders jersey in
the past and discover where they are now
College. While playing for the
Crusaders, he was involved in
drug and alcohol education work
in secondary schools.
“It was quite cool. I worked
with people like Margaret Foster,
Pat Lam and Tania Dalton,” he
said.
Sexton also held a role at High
Performance Sport New Zealand
before departing to Ireland following
the 2001 Super Rugby
season. He played three seasons
for Ulster in the Heineken Cup.
“I was ready for a change. I
was 31 when I left and had tried
pretty hard to get into the All
Blacks, but I was up against
some pretty stiff competition
and never got an opportunity,”
he said.
Sexton got his fix of international
rugby while in Europe. He
played several matches for the
Barbarians, which included two
wins over England.
“My last ever professional
game was against England on
Twickenham. Myself, Mark
Andrews and Jason Leonard got
marched off in front of a packed
house. It was a really nice finish
to what was a pretty cool career
as a rugby player,” said Sexton.
When he returned to New
Zealand in 2004, he started the
Tasman Rugby Union academy,
145 games goes without saying,
but it’s Reado’s influence as a
member of our leadership group
that will be a huge part of the
legacy he leaves here.”
Read has won three Super
Rugby titles with the Crusaders
since 2007 and played 118 tests
for the All Blacks.
then went back to Christchurch
the following year to manage the
Canterbury rugby academy for
seven years.
In 2012, he took up a role as
head coach of the former South
African Super Rugby franchise,
the Southern Kings. He was
joined at the Kings by current
Crusaders assistant coach Brad
Mooar. The Christchurch pair
had just three wins with the
Kings in 2013, which saw the
team relegated.
“We knew it was going to be
a tough assignment but we were
up for the challenge . . . when
I look back on the results and
reflect, we did better than any
new Super Rugby team has done
in their first year,” said Sexton.
Following his stint in South
Africa, Sexton was offered his
current role at the NZRU.
It involves overseeing academies
and development programmes
around the country, as
well as managing the Maori All
Blacks and New Zealand Schools
teams. Sexton is also involved
with coaching at Hutt International
Boys’ School.
He enjoys helping young players.
However, he hasn’t given up
on the idea of coaching again at
a high level. He also believes it’s
no coincidence the Crusaders’
squads of the late 1990s have
produced so many top coaches.
“We were in front of some
exceptional coaches, including
the likes of Steve Hansen and
Wayne Smith, guys who really
knew the game and imparted
their knowledge to the players
. . . that’s something that gave us
a great opportunity in the game
going forward.”
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