Selwyn Times: August 12, 2020
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16 Wednesday <strong>August</strong> <strong>12</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Our People<br />
SELWYN TIMES<br />
Jason Pieztner<br />
Rugby boots and safety boots<br />
Veteran half-back Jason<br />
Pietzner, 39, played<br />
his 300th division one<br />
match for Lincoln last<br />
month. Matt Slaughter<br />
spoke to him about his<br />
career<br />
What have been your most<br />
memorable moments playing<br />
for Lincoln?<br />
I think all championships are<br />
memorable. We had a couple<br />
that probably stand out. We had<br />
a combined final at Waihora in<br />
2014 and that stood out because<br />
we had been runners up and<br />
semi-finalists the previous sort<br />
three or four years without going<br />
the full distance, so that one<br />
there, it was almost a relief that<br />
we’d won that game.<br />
We had a run through the late<br />
2000s into the early teens with<br />
the Murray Cooper [Memorial]<br />
Shield, which is the shield you<br />
play for at home against other<br />
Ellesmere sides. So, we had that<br />
for 10 years, which basically<br />
meant we were unbeaten at home<br />
for 10 years against other Ellesmere<br />
sides in round-robin play.<br />
Who are some of the best<br />
players you have played against<br />
or with?<br />
I’ve played with All Black Joe<br />
Moody, obviously, at Lincoln. I<br />
played with Joe at the club for<br />
a number years before he went<br />
further up the chain of representative<br />
levels.<br />
I would have played against,<br />
probably earlier in the days, the<br />
likes of Scott Hamilton. He was a<br />
Crusader, obviously.<br />
We played Sonny Bill Williams<br />
once, that was great. That was<br />
back for Canterbury Country. It<br />
might have been his first game<br />
of rugby union way back, that<br />
might have been in 2006 or 2007,<br />
or maybe later. I think I might<br />
have been on the end of a fend at<br />
one stage, but there was a great<br />
photo of some of the boys, a<br />
couple of the country boys who<br />
lifted him up in a tackle and basically<br />
got him up-ended, so that<br />
BOOTS OFF: Jason Pietzner pictured in his job as national<br />
sales manager for Safety & Apparel in Islington.<br />
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN <br />
was their claim to fame. That was<br />
Scott McIlroy out of Darfield, he<br />
got him in a good tackle.<br />
What are some of the best<br />
team performances you have<br />
been a part of?<br />
Back in 2011, I think we got<br />
on a bit of a run in the combined<br />
competition. We mucked our<br />
way through the round-robin but<br />
in the quarter-finals, semi-finals<br />
and finals we got a bit of a roll on<br />
and we ended up playing the final<br />
at home against Methven and<br />
pretty much steamrolled them.<br />
Probably a memorable year<br />
was back in 2015. We won the<br />
competition in 2014, we had a lot<br />
of player turnover that summer.<br />
Guys finishing or moving on, or<br />
whatever it might have been.<br />
Come pre-season the next<br />
year, the guys were only getting<br />
four or five guys turning up to<br />
training, so it was almost a call<br />
to arms. A lot of the older players<br />
who had been retired for maybe<br />
three of four years all put their<br />
hand up to come back to play.<br />
So, we had guys who hadn’t<br />
played for three or four years<br />
come back and play senior rugby<br />
and kind of, in a way, we saved<br />
the side from going to relegation<br />
or not putting a team together.<br />
That was a cool year because<br />
we were a bunch of old guys<br />
who were probably unfit, hadn’t<br />
played for a long time. We sort<br />
of battled our way through it<br />
and we held onto that [Murray<br />
Cooper Memorial Shield] that<br />
year. By all means, we should<br />
have been beaten probably two<br />
or three times.<br />
But it was just a good year<br />
BOOTS ON: Pietzner dots down for Lincoln against Waihora.<br />
PHOTO: KAREN CASEY<br />
based around guys that knew<br />
how to play a bit of rugby and we<br />
just played to our strengths and<br />
I look back and think that if we<br />
didn’t have a team that year, it<br />
would have taken probably three<br />
or four years to get a div one side<br />
back.<br />
What’s your secret for how<br />
you have been able to keep<br />
playing rugby at division one<br />
level for so long?<br />
I’m lucky enough that my wife<br />
(Nicole) is a personal trainer.<br />
Having someone who has personal<br />
training experience and a<br />
qualified nutritionist probably<br />
helps a fair way for the diet and<br />
motivation to keep yourself fit.<br />
She’s not too shy in telling<br />
me if I’ve let myself go a little<br />
bit or haven’t been doing things<br />
so that always keeps me on my<br />
toes. And I guess I always have<br />
reasonably high levels of expectations<br />
around fitness. I always<br />
wanted to make sure, if I was in<br />
a team, I was putting my best on<br />
the field at all times.<br />
As I’ve got older, I’ve sort of<br />
been a leader within teams. You<br />
kind of want to be at the forefront<br />
of your fitness and strength<br />
or performance. You always<br />
want to be at the forefront of it so<br />
younger guys look up and kind<br />
of set the guidelines or set the<br />
expectations.<br />
Tell me about the serious eye<br />
injury in 2018 which could have<br />
been career ending.<br />
It was a pre-season game, we<br />
were playing Kaiapoi and it was<br />
literally the last play of the game.<br />
We could have just kicked the<br />
ball out and finished it but I said<br />
to the boys we should probably<br />
run it and have one last play at it.<br />
Long story short, we kicked it<br />
up the field, chased through and<br />
I went to tackle their fullback<br />
and as he went into the tackle, he<br />
put a fend out and unfortunately<br />
with the timing, one of his<br />
fingers just went straight into<br />
my left eye and in and out. Out<br />
of that, I left my eye for a couple<br />
of weeks and it wasn’t really<br />
powered by<br />
people<br />
Tania McDonald<br />
Registered Legal Executive<br />
Your local expert in Residential<br />
Property, Wills, Powers of<br />
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E: tania.mcdonald@saunders.co.nz