They’re sporting exiles, outcasts. Tauranga’s Arataki Bears Rugby League team.

They live in Tauranga, train in Tauranga, but they play everywhere except Tauranga. Because they’re not allowed to. Bears are a prohibited species here.

“Madness,” says Bear Taite Smith. “Just crazy.”

So the Bears have migrated, been driven out of town they say, to be fostered by a club 200km from home.

The Tūrangi Dambusters, from the foot of Lake Taupō, are the Bears’ new adoptive family, and

Tūrangitukua Park is the Bears’ new home ground, the new den.

“The Dambusters are reserve grade and are delighted to have us ‘prems’ playing out of their club,” says Taite.

And so on Saturdays the Bears, and as many as 30 hard-nosed supporters, pack into cars and travel up to two-and-a-half hours each way to play. Eighty minutes of football can suddenly become a 12-hour, 400km odyssey.

“Their problem, not my problem” says Stan ‘Bunny’ Nicholas, chairman of Tauranga’s Coastline District Rugby League.

“They’re just stubborn and thought they’d be smart going to Tūrangi.” He didn’t want to talk. “Don’t want anything to do with the Bears.”

How?

So a bitter stand-off.  How did it come to this?

It started when a bunch of guys went to the Arataki Sports Club with a plan to set up a new elite, ‘prem’, or premier rugby league team to play at a “bit more of a professional level”.

“We welcome anyone,” says Arataki Sport club chairman Billy Russell.

“They wanted an established club, like Arataki Sport, to help them get on their feet, with funding and their everyday operation.” It made sense.

“We just love the game,” says Taite. “And we want to play in the best competition and against the best players.”

But that couldn’t happen in Tauranga. The game has atrophied – not dead, but dying.

There’s no ‘prem’ competition anymore, nor reserve competition. So the Bears, brimming with talent and ambition, sought the blessing of the local Coastline Rugby League to play out of Arataki Sport in the respected premier competition run by the BOP Rugby League out of Rotorua. But Coastline stiff-armed them. Said an outright ‘No’.

The problem

“Never! They’re not part of Coastline – and never will be as long as they are based at a ground in opposition to a club already affiliated to us,” says Stan.

“We’re not going to s**t on the Whalers.”

And there’s the problem. The Whalers, who also play out of Arataki Park, was a club in name only when the Bears set up. The Whalers didn’t have a team, although they now play in the BOP reserve grade.

“There was some niggle between the Whalers and the Bears to start,” admits Billy.

“But we have mended relations. We both only want what’s best for each other and for rugby league. We support them, they support us.”

There was hint of a concession from Stan.

“If the Bears based themselves at another venue, if they went to Welcome Bay and called themselves the Welcome Bay Bears, that would be okay.”

But the Bears’ blood flows the black, red and white of Arataki Sport. They wear the colours, the carry the name Arataki Bears, and there’s the logo – a big roaring grizzly with fangs bared and claws drawn. There’s identity and allegiance at play here.

Home game…

It came to a head recently when the Bears wanted to bring one of their home games back to their true home patch at Arataki. But the Bears claim the Coastline League “made it impossible”.

“They can’t play at Arataki because they’re not a Coastline team,” says Stan.

“They’re Bay of Plenty and registered at Tūrangi, so their home ground is Tūrangi.” 

The idea died right there.

“We simply provided the boys with an opportunity,” says Billy. “And they’re doing well.”

The big loser, Billy suggests, is rugby league itself.

“It’s a damned shame. The game’s pretty ragged in Tauranga at the moment.”

And in a town where the game “is pretty ragged”, where league struggles, the Bears are standout. They’re a ‘prem’ team, the only ‘prem’ team in town.

“Shouldn’t Coastline be supporting us, showcasing us?” asks Taite. 

A raging Bear: Arataki’s Ethan Stuart is taken in a Pikiao (Rotorua) tackle. Photo: Tyson Ball, Huhu Images.

“We have boys who want to play in a team that offers opportunity, growth and development. And a chance to be seen.”

And the Bears have talent and ambition beyond reserve grade.

“If you’re a good league player, you want a good competition. You aren’t going to play reserve grade where sometimes you turn up and there’s no opposition, they can’t field a team.”

Politics

The bruins are feeling somewhat neutered.

“When we joined the BOP competition, someone at Coastline decided it’s a crime for us to use our name or play out of Arataki Sport.”

The Bears became the Tūrangi Bears kitted out like Arataki Bears – the Tūrangi Bears from Tauranga.

Bears can turn mean when provoked. And the Arataki Bears have been poked with a sharp stick. “Results speak for themselves,” says Taite.

“Until last week we were third on the table in our first year. “What does that tell Coastline?”

The Tūrangi Bears just want to come home, play home games on true home turf and as proud Arataki Bears.

And, command the respect they feel they’re due.

“Stupid politics,” says Taite.