The Tokanui Rugby Club celebrated its centenary at the weekend. Games against neighbouring club Wyndham were held on Saturday. The Ensign reporter Sandy Eggleston went along to find out more about the celebrations and chat to Daniel Webber who was playing his 150th game for the club.
After taking part in a Tokanui Rugby Club practice in about 2012, Daniel Webber has never looked back.
On Saturday the fullback celebrated his 150th game for the green and blacks, against Wyndham.
The game was part of the club’s 100th celebrations.
The result did not quite go to plan — Tokanui lost 17-25 in the Southland Rugby division one game.
Webber was at a friend’s 21st and his brother-in-law and the friend asked him to go to a practice, Webber said.
‘‘I went down and enjoyed it and just kept going back.
‘‘[There are] good coaches and a good bunch of people down there.’’
Previously he played for the Edendale club but he took a year off before playing for Tokanui.
Fullback was his favoured position but he would also fill in where needed in the backline.
He enjoyed having ‘‘time and space’’ further back from the play.
‘‘You can read the game from back there no matter how things are going.’’
He tried to be an attacking fullback to ‘‘exploit gaps’’ and was also working on his kicking game.
‘‘Today we pulled off some pretty good kicks playing the corners . . . [I’m] still trying to better my game for the team.’’
He had missed a couple of seasons due to injuries that required surgery.
Despite the loss to Wyndham he ‘‘loved it’’.
There were 44 players in the training squad and anyone of them could be in the 22 on merit, he said.
The 34-year-old was not sure how much longer he would play for but he was enjoying being part of the team.
‘‘It’s pretty hard to walk away.’’
