 |
Sports correspondent & historian with |
The tale of two good friends playing rugby at the turn of the millennium and their two siblings winning the same Boxing New Zealand National Championship title is not something you hear every day.
Gary Robertson and I met when the Western Bay of Plenty Sub-Union hosted South Waikato in a Peace Cup Challenge 2000.
The Peace Memorial Cup was introduced in 1919 to mark the end of the First World War after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, where peace was formally declared.
In the heyday of the Peace Cup in the 1950s and 1960s, up to 15 or 16 Mid-North Island Sub-Unions would compete in elimination rounds to determine the season’s winner.
Robertson coached South Waikato in the early 2000s before signing up to coach Hamilton to victory in 2002 and 2003.
He overcame health challenges and led the Hamilton club to five consecutive titles during the Covid-impacted years of 2020-2022, achieving additional success in the last two seasons.
Robertson battled severe health problems before making a coaching comeback to take Hamilton to five successive titles from the Covid-hit years of 2020, 21 and 22, and going on to further success in the last two seasons.
The Hamilton coach has put his name up with the best to coach Peace Cup teams to season victories.
Sideline Sid shares Robertson’s enthusiasm for the Peace Cup in writing Battered Silverware - One Hundred Years of Peace Cup Rugby 1920-2020.
Daryll Leabourn won the BNZ National Lightweight crown in his home town of Tauranga as a 19-year-old in 1991.
The New Zealand Lightweight title dates back even further than the Peace Cup and is one of four weight divisions contested at the first New Zealand Boxing Association Championships, held in Christchurch in 1902.
The number of bouts can measure the growth of boxing over the years at the first nationals and at the recently concluded national championships held in Christchurch.
Just 11 bouts were fought at the inaugural championships in 1902, while a mammoth card of 137 fights occupied proceedings over four days and nights last week.
Watene Robertson started boxing in his mid-20s in Adelaide, South Australia. He won titles in South Australia and the Northern Territory before facing bigger challenges.
In 2021, Watene and his coach crossed the ditch to contest the 2021 Golden Gloves. Reaching the title decider, he dropped a close decision to a two-time New Zealand champion.
Returning to South Australia, Robertson decided to concentrate on his business career and hung up his gloves.
Unfinished business prompted Watene to return to the ring in 2024. The plan to win a New Zealand Golden Gloves title came unstuck earlier this year with a paper-thin loss in preliminary competition.
The mark of a true champion is the ability to return from adversity and go on to complete the game plan.
Robertson won the Australia Club Championships Lightweight title before backing up with the Queensland Golden Gloves Light Welterweight crown.
Plan A was always to win a 2024 New Zealand title, with the Adelaide resident progressing directly to the final courtesy of a semifinal bye.
Watene Robertson would have his name engraved on the Parisian Cup awarded to the New Zealand Lightweight champion. He defeated a game Bradley Watkins from Bay of Plenty, with all five judges giving Watene a unanimous decision.
The win by Robertson’s son completed a unique double, with the siblings of two close mates winning the BNZ Lightweight crown, albeit 33 years apart.
