Something extremely special is happening at the Puni Rugby Club this season and it is finally starting to pay back the enormous amount of work club stalwart Jack Kani has done.
The small, rural club nestled between Pukekohe and Patumahoe is going gangbusters in the Premier 3 competition this season – jostling with Te Kauwhata at the top of the standings and looking like a real chance of lifting the Sid Marshall Shield in a few weeks.
Meanwhile the club has never been in better shape overall. Numbers are thriving and the club entered a women’s team for the first time this season. They have begun some improvements to the club facilities, adding a score board and improving the roof on the club rooms.
For the long-serving Kani, who has been the club’s most iconic player, coach and administrator, this year is the culmination of a hard-fought slog to ensure the club survived some dark days in recent years.
“My dream has been to ensure our club doors stay open and that has been the focus for the last five years,” the popular Kani told Counties Sports Hub. “I always question why I put myself under that pressure but I knew somewhere in the back of my mind it was for a season like we are having now.
“If we get the boys to get to the final it is just huge. I am getting huge feelings with the results we are having now.
“I get very happy and humble inside walking around the ground and talking to people – a lot of hard work went into getting us to where we are now.
“It would be great turning a dream in to reality and keep having more dreams.”
Last week Puni sat in top spot on the Premier 3 ladder (they had a bye on the weekend to fall back to second at present), the first time in over two decades they have been in such a position.
“In the mid-90s I was coaching and we had some coaches Lawrence Walker and Piri Fowler, who took the club to higher honours,” Kani explained.
“In the 2000-era it has been a long time between drinks.”
Kani is particularly excited by the growth in the women’s grade, which Puni entered for the first time in 2020.
“To be honest I had my doubts whether we could field a team because we are in competition with other codes – netball and rugby league – but we gave it 100% support to the girls and they only just missed out on making the finals, which is huge for any new club or new team that has come into a club.
“It was awesome.”
The success is starting to see the place thrive as people start to come and see what the fuss is all about.
“The whole club itself is on a high plus the community is starting to notice,” Kani said. “The older members and supporters are coming back.
“It is a bit of a combination – they are supporting the players because they have family on the paddock plus they are supporting the achievements the club is achieving.
“We are rapt with what is going on and humbled by it.
“As you get new management and coaching staff into a club they also bring new energy and ideas with them and while they bring that they also bring players with the skills to build that stuff.
“At the start of the season my goal was to get a team onto the paddock. We achieved that and so now the goal has changed.”
And Kani admits that his goals are starting to change as the levels of success climb. They have ambitions of moving up the grades in the coming seasons.
“We want our boys to go to a new level. With the energy this new management is bringing we are also getting queries from outside that want to be part of this rollercoaster ride.
“If we get the numbers and the numbers are 100% true to what we do we would like to go to Prem 2 as well as fielding a Prem 3 side next year.
“That is always a dream but to achieve a dream like that we have to maintain the numbers.”
A successful next month or so will ensure that dream is indeed reality.
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