Rugby: Koroman still having a ball at 66 (+video)

Tunohopu "Koroman" Kinita is still playing rugby in his 60s. He is pictured in front of his marae, Tunohopu, in Ohinemutu. Photo / Ben Fraser

Tunohopu Kinita has been playing rugby in Rotorua for the best part of six decades and says he is not done with it yet.

Kinita, 66, best known by his nickname Koroman, has played club rugby for local side Waikite for most of his life. Despite his age, he has never hung up his boots and played four senior rugby games last season.

Other commitments meant he could not get a game this season, but he said as long as his body was in good shape he was keen to play again.

Remarkably, Kinita had never broken a bone during his long career at flanker and prop.

"I've never had a bad injury ... and I've never had a broken bone. My fingers don't look the greatest but they have been trampled on and that," he said. "I'll probably get arthritis when I'm old, but when is old? I'm 66."

Kinita said a lot of his friends retired from playing about the age of 40, but he played some of his best rugby later in life.

"I played better in my 40s and 50s because I just wanted to say to these young fellas 'if I can do it you can do it'," he said.

He had some of his toughest games playing for the Waikite Black team around the late 1980s, a team he stayed with for about three decades.

"Those were the toughest games in all my life because they were cousins and brothers playing against each other," he said.

"Those games were real hard. But today's games are not hard, you are not allowed to do anything. If you shoulder charge a fella you get done 10 minutes in the bin.

"But those days that wasn't on. You had to take it and give it back."

Kinita said he goes to the gym five times a week and enjoys hunting as well, which helped him stay fit and strong.

On the odd occasion Kinita has been pressured to give up playing rugby, including at the age of 40 when his wife gave him an ultimatum.

"I got married when I was 17," he said. "She stuck by me for a while until I turned 40, then she said to me 'you've got to give up playing now, you know, we've got grandkids coming along'. And I said, 'stuff that'."

At the age of 19, and playing at flanker, Kinita debuted for the Waikite senior A team and won a Rotorua Championship title in his first year with the top team.

He said after about 10 years playing top grade he went down a division and started the Waikite Black team with a few friends. Since then he has always played prop.

"That is probably why I have got a few games when I've gotten older because no one else wants to play prop," he said. "Younger fellas don't want to play prop ... they want to be getting all the tries and getting all the glory."