2015: Bay of Plenty's Johan Bardoul. Photo / George Novak
Te Awamutu-born former Bay of Plenty Steamers rugby forward Johan "Yogi" Bardoul, 35, was thrilled to witness younger brother Seamus making his Steamers debut on September 28 at Tauranga Domain.
Now based in Perth, Western Australia, Johan flew over to watch his 25-year-old brother don the 12 jersey in the match against Northland, while also giving the Steamers coaches a hand during their storm week (three matches in nine days).
"Seamus is my little brother and we're both capped for Bay of Plenty now which is quite cool," says Johan who also made his NPC debut at 25.
"We're late bloomers us Bardouls."
As well as being a late bloomer, Johan had a vast rugby journey over many clubs and four countries.
From a large family of Dutch descent, Johan, his siblings and his parents John and Christine moved from Tihiroa (near Te Kawa) to the Mamaku region when he was 5 - although the Bardoul name is still prominent in the greater Te Awamutu area as his Oma and Opa (grandparents), Peter and Mies, lived in Ōhaupō for many years and his uncle Paul still farms there.
John, Paul and many other relations played for the Ōhaupō Rugby Club and Johan says his father has fond memories of those days.
"The old man loved playing for Ōhaupō when he was younger, he said. I played against them a few times when I was playing for Matamata but we always got the wood on them."
Johan first took up rugby as a 5-year-old at Putāruru Rugby Club, playing there until he was 10.
"We travelled from the Mamakus where we owned Highland Hills, a big farm on the top of the Mamakus with the red woolshed. I went to Tapapa School, which was just out of Okoroire but it's closed down now. Then we sold the farm and moved into Rotorua. That's when I played for Marist St Michael's," he says.
He played rugby throughout high school, firstly at John Paul College before transferring to Rotorua Boys' High School and eventually ending up at Matamata College, the area where his family has stayed ever since.
"I always played rugby and I loved it, but for Matamata College 1st XV I was on the bench. Then I went down south and lived down there for a year or so. I played for Heriot Rugby Club and went to Telford Rural Polytechnic.
"Between the age of 18 and 20, I grew a hell of a lot. Then came back and I was going to play colts [under-21] for United Matamata Sport but I ended up trialling for the top side."
The trial went well and Johan ended up playing for premier rugby for United Matamata Sports for several seasons.
"That's when I realised I wasn't actually too bad at rugby and started to take it seriously.
"I ended up getting player of the year and that's when I got a look with Waikato Under 20 but I didn't make the team.
"Nobody knew who I was and I was really gutted. I thought I had trialled quite well but I didn't have any Waikato gear and hadn't been in any of the setups."
Ireland was calling Johan's name, as his sister was living there and club side Kilfeacle offered to play for his flights and accommodation. He ventured over there and loved it.
"It was a great bunch of lads but the club rugby was terrible, the weather was horrific, the people were friendly and there was plenty to drink - but it wasn't the right environment because I still wanted to take rugby seriously," says Johan.
Outside of rugby, Johan wanted to gain a teaching degree and a good option for both rugby and study was Hamilton.
At around 21 years old, he moved back to New Zealand and started at the University of Waikato.
"That's when I went to Hamilton Old Boys because they were going to pay for my accommodation - being a uni student, any help you could get financially was a bonus.
"I ended up playing for Old Boys and Waikato Development for a couple of years. I went in and out of the Waikato team, just training for a week but didn't get a cap."
Johan was named the 2011 Waikato club player of the year and was the first-ever player to receive the award without playing for Waikato.
Due to the Rugby World Cup being played in New Zealand, Waikato didn't have a development side that year so 24-year-old Johan signed on for the Thames Valley Swampfoxes in the Heartland Championship.
"I enjoyed that, it was good fun. Then in 2012, I played for Old Boys and the Waikato Development team again and towards the end of the season, I got called into the Waikato team.
"I trained with them for a couple of weeks and then in the second-to-last game against Counties Manukau, I got put on the bench to finally debut."
Johan became Waikato #1104 on October 6, 2012 when he took the field at ECOlight Stadium in Pukekohe.
Along with other debutants Loni Uhila, "the Tongan Bear", Johan got onto the pitch for the last quarter and Waikato ended up winning 32-28.
"We weren't favourites because they put a B team out there since we had won the Ranfurly Shield the week before and we only had one more defence against Hawke's Bay the following weekend," he says.
"I went all right and that was when the Bay of Plenty coach messaged me after the game saying 'hey if Waikato doesn't sign you next year then we will sign you at Bay of Plenty'. Finally, at 25 I got a crack, a breakthrough."
At the end of the 2012 season, he had a meeting with the Waikato coaching staff and they weren't prepared to re-sign him.
"I was born in the Waikato, I grew up there and I bled red, yellow and black my whole life. All I wanted to do was play for Waikato but I never really got given a crack."
Although also able to cover lock, Johan was primarily a blindside flanker.
Regular No 6 Luke Braid was departing Bay of Plenty, so it was the perfect time for him to head over the Kaimais.
"That was the best decision that I ever made, I went there and started every 2013 season game.
"But I didn't play overly well and was sort of disappointed in myself. By this stage, I was almost 27 and still doing my teaching degree part-time. I didn't make Super Rugby and I said to myself that if I don't make Super Rugby in 2014, then I'll see my ITM Cup contract out for 2014, pull the pin and just focus on teaching."
He trained really hard during 2014 and with his new club side Mount Maunganui (Marlins), he won his first-ever title.
"I then had a really good season with the Bay and got Players' Player of the Year and Player of the Year," he says.
"With about two games to go, we'd just played Northland at Baypark, and I was really crook before the game. We were walking to the changing rooms down the tunnel after the game and [Chiefs coach] Dave Rennie was at the end of the tunnel by our door, everyone was walking past him and saying hello.
"I went to walk past and said gidday. He said 'Yogi can I chat with you for a minute?' and pulled me aside. He said 'how would you like to play for the Chiefs next year?'.
"I was 27 by that stage and had been through a bit of adversity so, I was pretty stoked. I told my parents, then my partner and the rest is history really."
With the likes of All Black Liam Messam at the Chiefs franchise, Johan was worried he wouldn't get any game time and he didn't want to be there just to make up the numbers.
Rennie assured him that if he turned up and worked hard, he'd get an opportunity.
"I worked bloody hard through the Super Rugby pre-season. Messam had to take a game off because he was on All Blacks duty, due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup. They all had to have a rest game and he decided to have the first one off.
"It was between me and a couple of other boys to get that starting 6 jersey against the Blues. I got the nod to start, that sort of took the monkey off my back, and then I managed to get a few more caps."
Although he had only signed up on a one-year contract, he was soon offered a two-year extension.
"That was pretty satisfying. It was probably one of the proudest moments in my rugby career – especially with how good the Chiefs were."
"Dave Rennie walked down and tapped me on the shoulder the Monday after we'd beaten the Crusaders by 50 points in 2015. I played quite well in that game and asked 'Yogi, are you enjoying yourself?' and I said 'yeah I am' and he said 'we'd love to keep you on here for another couple of years'.
"I was in the gym at HQ. I just shook his hand then went outside straight away and rang my mum, then my partner, now wife, and my agent. I didn't even finish my gym session.
"My mum was crying on the phone and I was pretty emotional. It's not common nowadays and it wasn't common back then to debut at 27. To have security and to play for your Super Rugby side that you grew up following, I was pretty stoked."
Johan finished up with Bay of Plenty after the 2015 season and signed with Yamaha Júbilo (now Shizuoka Blue Revs) for two years in Japan as the season didn't overlap with Super Rugby.
Parting ways with the Chiefs after 2016, he finished with 11 caps to his name.
"Then I finished my two years with Yamaha and I went back to New Zealand. Before I left Japan I signed a contract with Coca-Cola, another club, where Ross Filipo was coaching."
Filipo had been a teammate of Johan's at the Chiefs and knowing that he had Kiwi connections in the Coca-Cola Red Sparks side was the only attraction, as he hadn't particularly enjoyed his previous experience in Japan.
While Johan was in New Zealand waiting for the 2018 Japanese season to kick off, his agent asked him if he would be interested in playing for the Perth-based Western Force for a couple of months.
"That was when they got kicked out of Super. I said 'I didn't think they had a team?' and he told me 'they've got a billionaire that's backing them'. So, I thought I may as well go and I came here on a four-month contract before I went back to Japan," says Johan.
"I loved it, I played in the Global Rapid Rugby inaugural competition and from there I re-signed with the Force for the following year as I was only going back to Japan for the one year. I stayed at the Force after that and kept re-signing with them until I retired in 2020."
In three years with the Force, Johan made 15 appearances between the World Series Showcase, Global Rapid Rugby and the 2020 Super Rugby AU campaign, when they were finally reintroduced.
"In my last year, I got to play Super Rugby again which was good. When I was in Japan, it was good financially but I lost the love for rugby. When you play over in Japan it's like playing for a company, it would be like playing for Bunnings, and it was hard to draw motivation.
"Whereas when I went to the Force, they're not an overly successful team but they've got massive support – it's phenomenal.
"I was playing for the boys when I came here in 2018, there were a few that were part of the Super Rugby team when they got chopped so they were pretty heartbroken. Some of them were legendary players like Heath Tessmann.
"I was playing for them, I could draw motivation from that fact that they had gone through heartbreak. I found my love of actually why I play the game. Ultimately, you don't play for the money, you play because you're competitive and you love it."
Considering heading home to New Zealand after retiring in 2020, Johan was ready to start teaching.
"My wife was keen to stay here [Perth]. We ended up buying a place and I got a job as a PE teacher at Guildford Grammar School, an Anglican private school about half an hour from where we live," he says.
As well as teaching, Johan has worked with the Force academy, coached the Perth Bayswater Numbats and hopes to get into professional coaching.
"I've been doing that for the last two years but we're actually moving to Tauranga at the end of the year. I haven't lived at home since 2016, so I'm looking forward to moving back."
Family is important to Johan and Tauranga is certainly a closer trek home to Matamata by at least seven hours.
"We've got a little fella now so that's probably the only thing with Perth, it's so isolated. We've got no family here and we've got a 1-year-old. He's keen to go hang out with his cousins back home and his grandparents as well."
Johan will certainly be one to watch in New Zealand coaching circles - and who knows, maybe he will get to witness brother Seamus become a fellow Chiefs club member too.
JOHAN'S TEAM TIMELINE:
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