Under-rated Rasmussen leaves a record legacy

Tu Tangata, Issue 28, 1 February 1986, Page 19

Under-rated Rasmussen leaves a record legacy

By Michael Romanos

The curtain has finally come down on a slightly battered Randwick club and Wellington representative rugby league team captain and loose forward, Rodney Rasmussen. He will forever be remembered as the leader of a fine, exciting league side which played (and lost) in four successive Tusk Cup national club finals.

The 6ft, near 14 stone league player leaves the playing side of the 13 a-side code a little bitter and much frustrated. Bitter and frustrated because of all the injuries which clouded his career and finally wrecked the hearing in one ear, and because of the elusiveness of the Tusk Cup in going so far so often, only to slide backwards each time with the linesmen playing a large part at Carlaw Park in affecting his team’s prospects.

Rasmussen scored an average of 16 tries a season in a premier league career spanning 15 years but his average of injuries was almost as high. From his head to his toes, the Randwick warhorse has suffered terrible misfortunes. He has had: a fractured skull, two broken teeth, twice broken nose, three times concussed, chipped bone in his neck, dislocated shoulder, abdominal strain, broken arm, sprained wrist, dislocated thumb knuckle, torn knee tendon, two torn medial ligaments, torn hamstring, ankle strain, archilles tendon problems, snapped foot tendon, quadriceps strain. Wellington-born, Rodney has in his makeup five-eights Cook Island Maori, two-eights Scottish and one-eights English. But the 34 year old Insurance agent said he feels basically a New Zealand who is especially proud of his Polynesian side. He has twice visited H Rarotonga.

His “grandfather” Viggo Rasmussen was a famous Danish schooner captain who operated in the South Pacific and married into the Pokoati family. Rodney’s father, Viggo (junior) was the whangai, in line with the Cook Island custom afforded to the second born in a family. Viggo jnr and his wife Peggy moved from Takuvaine, Rarotonga in 1946 to Wellington with four children. The couple had a further four children including Rodney. Rodney said he is disconcerted when maori-speaking Cook Island people are considered by the New Zealand Maori and Pakeha as “Islanders” which he says has racial overtones. Rasmussen was rated the most promising softball short-stop in the Hutt Valley as a 17-18 year old and he repped for Hutt Valley in the age grades at national championships. But league took over when he decided to concentrate on a winter sport and give more freedom in the summer months for less serious pursuits. He was in the first 15 (rugby union) at Hutt Valley Memorial College where league was (and still is) frowned upon. But league was in the family “blood” with his father and his older brothers, John Finley and George preceeding, Rodney into the Randwick Club. The Randwick Club shifted its headquarters from Randwick School, Moera to Strand Park but following a fire which burnt down their Strand Park Clubrooms, the club moved their headquarters further up the Valley to Naenae Park as part of the complex including the Cardinals Softball Club.

Rasmussen said he has never been happy with the Naenae location because it is too far removed from the club’s roots. He said the Lower Hutt City Council turned down the club’s application to build new clubrooms on several other sites.

“It looks like we are destined to stay at Naenae. At least the facilities here are excellent the best any league club has in the Wellington region,” he said.

The Randwick Club was founded in the 1920’s and today its membership is multi-racial in consisting of Maori, Cook Island, Tokelau, Western Samoan and European.

“Basically we are a happy club and we socialise very well. The support our premier side receives has been rated the best in New Zealand by Kiwi coach, Graham Lowe.”

Since 1968, Randwick has won the major Wellington premier championship eight times including the last three seasons and ever since the Tusk Cup has been installed, Randwick has appeared in every final, four years in succession.

Brothers John, George, Finley and Rodney have all repped for the Wellington seniors in league. John and Rodney have captained Randwick and John and Finley have been the premier team’s

coach, Finley for the last four years. John was the coach in 1968 and 1969 and was the main reason behind Randwick’s resurgence to the top. Finley and Rodney have captained Wellington with Finley playing over 60 rep matches and Rodney over 40. As well, Rodney captained Central District sides including the international against Great Britain in 1984.

Rodney’s greatest attributes have been to play and use his natural skills of anticipation and leadership. A determined and dedicated player with a good turn of speed, Rasmussen said he is disappointed he missed the New Zealand representation but he feels he wasn't given the breaks he deserved.

In 1984, Kiwi coach Lowe said Rasmussen was the most underrated player in NZ league. For a start he has been in and out of Wellington and Central District teams ever since he first played rep league in 1972.

“It’s been the change of rep team coaches and selection policies, my own Randwick club making me unavailable and injuries which have affected my chances of playing higher.

“For example, in 1975 I played all eight games for Wellington and got player of the match twice. Yet from 1976 to 1979 under a new rep coach, I wasn’t required. In 1980 I returned to the Wellington side and was made captain.” Outspokeness has also affected his representative career.

In 1982 Wellington toured Australia led by Rasmussen and in the same season, Wellington’s most potent team ever, inflicted a rare hiding on Canterbury in Christchurch to grab the Rugby League Cup, symbol of NZ provincial superiority.

“I spoke to the media (including this writer) at the end of 1982 in regard to the over prevalence of head-high tackles in Wellington club league and again in 1983 after some really vicious incidences. I also spoke out against the standard of refereeing in Wellington in letting these type of incidences go unchecked.

“The outcome was I was dropped from both the Wellington and Central Districts teams. Wellington got thrashed in several games in 1983 and I was only reinstated for the last rep match of the season. But I have no regrets in stating how things were. Since going public, the referees here have been taking a firmer line in regard to dirty play.”

Rasmussen said Randwick should have won the first of the Tusk Cup finals.

“We were leading Petone (another Wellington club team) until the last 30 seconds when we gave away a penalty inside their 22 metres and Petone scored a try from it. We thought the 1985 final would be ours because the other finalist, Manukau of Auckland in six games had failed to defeat our 1984

finals opponent, Mt Albert. We had only lost to Mt Albert in the 1984 final in the last 10 minutes when I was adjudged to have elbowed in a tackle which not only cost us a certain try but gave Mt Albert two points from the penalty.

“We had the wrong game plan against Manukau but the situation wasn’t helped when I went off after only 10 minutes in the second half.”

Rasmussen was heavily concussed and suffered a fractured skull. He spent a week in the Auckland hospital and six weeks at home trying to regain his balance. He has been left with a deaf right ear from the fracture.

I’ve had a bad trot of injuries over the last five years. Quiet honestly, if I knew I would get all these injuries I would never had played the game at all. I had always intended the 1985 Tusk Cup final to be my last game but I am really frustrated in not having achieved a Tusk Cup win.

“I have been most annoyed with the Auckland linesmen in each of our finals. They have influenced the result. It is time the linesmen are neutral or the final is played elsewhere. But it

cannot be taken away from Randwick that over the last four years we have been one of the strongest and entertaining league teams in New Zealand and it wil be a long time (if ever) that another team makes four successive finals.

“We have also been a good disciplined team off the field. We are the only sports team allowed at the South Pacific Hotel in Auckland.

“I am not retiring on a good note because I would like to have achieved more. The club will not be satisfied until they win the Tusk Cup.”

Rasmussen intends to take up league coaching in the future and there has already been some pressure put on him to coach Randwick and Wellington next season.

Rodney married English-born Kathy Yeats in 1972. Two of their three daughters, Meccedes and Ebonee have been part of the Randwick premier side cheer leader team since 1983.

Kathy’s father, Geoff is president of the Randwick Club.

Another achievement of Rodney is in renovating a cottage into a fine modern home (complete with a tower) in the ex-

pensive beach-side suburb of Eastbourne.

Rasmussen said Lowe has a lot to do with the great NZ team successes over the past few years.

“Graham lets the players use their flair. A big difference from other years is this current NZ side is largely professional. It is only been a recent international ruling that all overseas-based players must be given the opportunity to play for their country.”

Of the 26-strong NZ team, Rasmussen thinks only five or six are pakeha.

“The Maori and Polynesian are more gifted to the running style of play league has to offer. But in Wellington it is becoming a Polynesian game and this is not a good thing for league. We are losing the dedicated administrators because of it.

“Everyone of the clubs around Wellington are 90 percent Polynesian. When I first started playing premier, the teams were predominantly pakeha apart from Petone. The lack of good coaches and administrators is holding Wellington league back from progressing to the extent where it should be.”