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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 />

Attorney and Estate Planning<br />

E: tania.mcdonald@saunders.co.nz

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