Double the value with Sonny

Sonny Wimutu took up rugby last year and is already in the Wairarapa Bush rep team. But that hasn't stopped him making the provincial rep soccer team too.
What do you get if you cross David Beckham with Joe Rokocoko?
The answer might be Sonny Wimutu.
Sonny, 13, is a pupil at Lakeview School. He is a talented sportsman who is so good at rugby and soccer that he was selected to play for the Wairarapa-Bush under-13 representative teams in both codes last season.
It's a feat that is all the more remarkable because Sonny has been playing rugby for only just over a year.
Sonny's soccer playing days stretch back further ? he has played soccer for six years and was selected for Wairarapa-Bush soccer reps once before.
But rugby has become his first love because "it's more about teamwork. You have to get to the rucks, you have to back up your friends and you have to get injured."
Before he was chosen for the Wairarapa-Bush rugby reps, Sonny played for Masterton club, Pioneer. His cousins encouraged him to get into rugby and one cousin, Nikora Ewe, 11, plays second-five for the Wairarapa-Bush under-11 representative team.
As far as he knows, Sonny is the only local schoolboy to play both rugby and soccer for the Wairarapa-Bush representative teams. He manages to juggle two winter sports because the lower North Island tournament for representative soccer is a few weeks later than the representative rugby tournament.
Playing for the reps is good fun, Sonny said, because "you get some nice feeds and you meet some cool people".
When it comes to rugby, he plays on the wing ? like his hero Joe Rokocoko. In football he's a midfielder, like his other hero, David Beckham.
He's never been injured playing rugby, although he was once "kicked in the ribs" while playing soccer.
Next year Sonny will be going to Rathkeale where he plans to concentrate on playing rugby rather than soccer.
In the short-term he wants to play for the East Coast Colts. In the longer term, who knows where he'll be?
Perhaps he will one day play for New Zealand in either a black or a white shirt ? maybe even in both.