Laws breaks rib in rugby game

Whanganui Mayor Michael Laws. Photo / Wanganui Chronicle

Wanganui District Mayor Michael Laws says he was "the talk of the game" after he kept playing after breaking one rib and cracking another during the Wanganui Mayoral XV's rugby game against the Parliamentary XV at Whanganui's Cooks Gardens on Saturday.

Mr Laws, who captained the side and played at first five-eighth, suffered the injury in a tackle early in the charity match.

"Some big white bunga landed on me in about the first 90 seconds. I thought 'I can't go off'."

Mr Laws said he "struggled on, manfully" and continued to play for the first quarter, then went off but came back for the last quarter of the 80-minute game.

"I even pulled off a big hit on (Whanganui MP) Chester Borrows," he said.

The game was a curtain-raiser to Whanganui's Heartland Championship clash with West Coast.

The Mayoral XV included former All Black Norm Hewitt, councillors Rana Waitai and Danny Jones, Wanganui City College principal Peter Kaua, and several members of the Wanganui rugby team.

On the Parliamentary team were MPs Damien O'Connor, Iain Lees-Galloway and Chris Tremain, as well as Parliamentary and diplomatic staff.

Mr Laws lamented that the game was a "quite agressive, very willing encounter". A female player on Laws' team required hospital treatment following a heavy tackle, despite a pre-game agreement that female players would not be tackled.

"The spirit of the game changed after that," Mr Laws said. "By the end of [the game] you knew you had been in a game of 'thugby'."

Mr Laws said he would be "out of action" for four weeks.

"I was hoping to impress (Wanganui coach) Guy Lennox."

Mr Borrows said the game was one of the toughest he had played in for the Parliamentary XV.

"It was played in good heart, but it was a very hard game, and the teams were very evenly matched."

The game ended in a five-all draw and raised $11,000 for the Life to the Max Trust, a Whanganui social work-based programme which, in conjunction with police, works to counter youth offending in the town.
Mr Laws was pleased with the amount raised.

"I'm quite happy to give up a couple of my ribs (for the cause)."

- additional reporting Wanganui Chronicle