New Zealand sevens player Andrew Knewstubb in action against Uruguay in Las Vegas in 2018.
New Zealand sevens player Andrew Knewstubb in action against Uruguay in Las Vegas in 2018.
New Zealand Sevens representative Andrew Knewstubb will be named at centre in the Horowhenua-Kāpiti rugby team to play West Coast at Greymouth on Saturday.
Knewstubb, a regular in the NZ sevens team for the past five seasons, comes into the team fresh from a Tokyo Olympics silver medal.
He said he was grateful for the opportunity to play Heartland rugby and finally represent Horowhenua-Kāpiti. It had been a long-held ambition.
"I haven't had the chance to play for Horowhenua-Kāpiti and I didn't really know if I would ever get the chance to do it," he said
Knewstubb, who turns 26 today, played his schoolboy rugby for Paraparaumu College and was a Horowhenua-Kāpiti age-grade representative, so he had always harboured hopes of one day playing for Horowhenua-Kāpiti.
His old brother Corey had played for Horowhenua-Kāpiti at halfback in 2008.
"I want to take this opportunity because I might never get the chance again," he said.
New Zealand sevens player Andrew Knewstubb is poised to debut for Horowhenua-Kāpiti this weekend against West Coast at Greymouth.
In what was a rest period of the NZ sevens team, a small window in their programme had freed Knewstubb to move home from his Papamoa base for the start of the Heartland championship, which kicks off this weekend now after a Covid-19 delay.
"It's pretty special for myself and my family. It's close to home and they'll be able to come and watch. They don't often get the chance to watch me play live either," he said.
Knewstubb would be available for only the first few Heartland games before taking up NZ seven commitments again, but said he hoped to contribute and learn as much as he could in that time.
Even though he had the experience of playing in a professional environment and was keen to impart as much knowledge as he could, he was hoping the educational benefits were reciprocal.
"I wasn't sure I would be able to do this, so just want to help out where I can. I want to learn as much as I can from the team culture and get amongst those traditions, which I can hopefully take back with me," he said.
"You can become a wee bit complacent with the flash gears sometimes so it is humbling to get the chance to play grassroots and to play with boys who aren't there for the money - if I'm selected of course."
A landscape gardener by trade, Knewstubb moved to Nelson as a teenager with some friends to join a rugby academy there and picked apples at nearby orchards to pay the bills.
New Zealand sevens player Andrew Knewstubb in action against Uruguay in Las Vegas in 2018.
In 2014, he represented Nelson Bays at both fullback and No. 10, and later played for Tasman before breaking into the NZ sevens team in 2017. He was part of the All Blacks Sevens team to win Commonwealth Games gold and Sevens World Cup in 2018.
He was also one of key players in the recent NZ sevens Olympic campaign that saw them win a silver medal at Tokyo, losing 24-12 to Fiji in the final, while last season he made the Canterbury Mitre 10 Cup squad.
Knewstubb joins a list of quality players to come from Paraparaumu College including All Blacks Dane Coles and Paul Steinmetz, and international sevens player Warwick Lahmert.
From a young age he wanted to be a top rugby player and began playing rugby for the Waikanae club when he was 5.
He was picked for the HK primary schools team and subsequently the U14, U16, U18 representative teams before making the HK sevens side.
Horowhenua-Kapiti rugby coach Chris Wilton.
Horowhenua-Kāpiti coach Chris Wilton said he was confident the decision to pick Knewstubb was the right call, despite his unavailability towards the end of the season.
It was a unique opportunity to have someone with international experience join the squad and that would be an asset for their overall campaign.
"Our players understand. With his experience it will be a chance to learn and I think having him in there can only lift them," he said.
