The 1987 Waikato senior rugby team. Doug Semmens is middle row, fifth from left.
The most recent name on the Pirongia Rugby Sports Club honours board since 1966, Doug Semmens, 64, played rugby in the Te Awamutu area for more than 30 years.
Doug and twin brother Steve were born on Dr Lindsay Rogers’ Cambridge Rd farm on September 2, 1958, to parents George and Te Hukinga Semmens.
“My mum was born in Raetihi. Her mother died when she was very young and her father moved up here,” says Doug.
“I don’t know where my dad comes from - he didn’t know who his father was. His grandmother brought him up and when he was old enough to work, she worked him. He ran away from home when he was 14 and never went back.
“After what I call a pretty tough upbringing, he loved children – there was always a good kid in there somewhere, they just needed a bit of help. He never ever had a chip on his shoulder or a grudge about anything that he was given in life.”
The twins had an older sister, Linda, with a younger sister, Christine, soon to come.
George milked cows for Dr Rogers, now a Te Awamutu Walk-of-Famer, until the doctor drowned in 1962 and left the farm to Te Awamutu College.
Doug and his siblings were schooled at Kōrakonui Primary School before he attended Te Awamutu College from 1973 to 1976.
“I wanted to go back to do the seventh form, but my mum said, ‘no, you mucked around last year, you’re not going to go back and muck around for another year’. So, I left and mucked around.”
Now a jack of all trades, Doug first got into the workforce with a motor mechanic apprenticeship at Te Awamutu Machinery Ltd (now Te Awamutu Motors) in 1976.
“I passed all my exams and finished a year shorter than the contract. I wanted to have a break, so I went scrub cutting down Mokauiti [near Aria] for a year,” he says.
“I came back and TML didn’t have a vacancy at the time. So, I went down the road to Wilksbrooke Mazda and worked there for two years.
“I was engaged to get married and TML offered me more money so I went back and worked there for a year. Then the garage at Te Pahū came up [for sale]. We started there on the fourth of July, 1983 and were there for 20 years.”
While in Te Pahū, Doug and his wife Susan bought a farm and leased out some of the land.
“One of the people we were leasing to was advertising for a sharemilker. I thought it would be a great chance to farm our own land,” says Doug.
He sharemilked for two years and “burned the candle at both ends”. After several tractor accidents, the pair decided it was time to sell.
“One of the lessees bought the property off us. Within three weeks of that, I rolled a tractor and broke some vertebrae in my back. So, my wife milked the cows for the last couple of months of the season.”
Doug says he stayed in Te Pahū doing agricultural driving for Roger White for a few more years, “even with my record of driving tractors”.
Upon rolling another tractor, “he gave that away” and the couple built a house at Ōhaupō.
After working for a friend in Whitikahu near Gordonton for five years, Doug worked in Western Australia’s gold mines from 2011 to 2017 working on a FIFO (fly in fly out) basis.
The now Karāpiro-based Semmens couple own Treelocations, a tree transplanting business founded by Ōhaupō Tree Church creator Barry Cox.
“I still do mechanic repairs, I still love mechanical work. Working in Oz, to get paid good money to do something I loved was great,” says Doug.
Rugby
Doug’s rugby affiliation started at age 5 playing for Kōrakonui and he never missed a year until retiring in the early 1990s.
In 1971, Doug, Steve and the Te Awamutu side won the Gwynne Shield, a feat the team hadn’t achieved since 1958 – the year the twins were born.
After getting mucked around in the college rugby system the Semmens boys played their third-form rugby for Te Awamutu Old Boys.
Dad George was “a St Pat’s man” (now Te Awamutu Marist) and the following year he went to coach there.
George was a well-respected coach, having coached a lot of Te Awamutu Rugby Sub-Union Peace Cup teams.
The boys followed their father and he coached them right through to under-21s before they transitioned into senior rugby.
“At the time there was a youth borstal centre at Waikeria and we’d play against Waikeria when we were under 17s and under 19s. We’d have quite a few players saying, ‘we’re finishing up in here soon, could I come and play for you?’,” says Doug.
“Dad would always say, ‘yup, all you have to do is come to training. If you can’t get there, let me know and I’ll pick you up’. If they were keen, he’d find them a job on a farm somewhere. So many of them turned their lives around.”
While representing St Pat’s Under 17 side, Doug played his only overseas rugby.
The teenagers headed to Fiji, playing a match each in Suva and Taveuni.
Doug says “the heat was phenomenal and they got trampled”.
If there were any holes in the pitch, the locals would fill them with gravel.
In 1979, he played for an undefeated Waikato Under 21 team alongside Arthur Stone.
The same year he split his kneecap. Thankfully that was his only major rugby injury and it happened near the end of the season.
Doug went on to play several years of senior rugby for St Pat’s. The team made their way into the first division but then got dropped back to second.
“I was keen on playing first-division rugby. In 1983, Te Awamutu Old Boys coach Dale Smeaton rang me and said ‘heard you could be interested, if you are we’d love to have you. I won’t ring you again. Come along to training’. I went along to training and started playing for Te Awamutu Old Boys in first-division rugby and loved it.
“I started on the wing but most of my rugby ended up being at blindside flanker or No 8. Having said that, my dad had me play any position that we were short of growing up.”
His time at Old Boys also saw his first appearance for the Te Awamutu Rugby Sub-Union team playing alongside the likes of Waikato legends Kiwi Searancke and Richard Adam.
Doug was part of a 20-plus-game undefeated Te Awamutu tenure from 1987-1991.
Te Awamutu Old Boys became Doug’s rugby home until 1987 when he joined Pirongia – the year he would make his Waikato provincial debut.
“I’d been in a training squad for Waikato in the previous year so they had an idea of where I was at. They had a couple of injuries; John Mitchell was out and they were embarking on their South Island tour. They rang me up and said, ‘we know what your form is like, are you available?’.
He says that was ‘a pretty easy decision to make” as it was always a young man’s ambition to play for Waikato.
The 29-year-old became Waikato #862 on September 30, 1987, wearing the six jersey in a 30-4 loss to Canterbury at Lancaster Park.
“There were a couple of legends of the game, Warwick Taylor was playing, and we got rather badly beaten.
“The next game up we played against Otago and Fozzie [Ian Foster] had an outstanding game. We beat them and Fozzie was named our player of the day, which I thought was spot on. That was only a two-game tour and then it was the end of the year.”
Although that was Doug’s only cap for Waikato in his only season for Pirongia, they’re both memories that he is proud of.
“You occasionally talk to someone and they’ll say, ‘I was out at Pirongia and I saw your name up at the honours board’. I was quite passionate about playing for Pirongia towards the end of my career, living at Te Pahū and giving something back there - just playing with guys who are passionate about their team and rugby,” he says.
“Pirongia always had a real country club atmosphere and having grown up in the country, I would have carried on playing for them other than the fact that Te Awamutu United and Te Awamutu Old Boys were amalgamating and I was keen on supporting that, so I went and played for Te Awamutu Sports.
“I thought it was going to be very good for Te Awamutu rugby and I think it has proved to be that way.”
Te Awamutu Sports formed in 1990 and Doug played several seasons in both the A and B sides.
“I was getting older and always wanted to give rugby up before I become a has-been. I had two young children and I was running a country garage so I couldn’t afford to be hurt. I also wanted to get into older life without carrying too many rugby injuries.”
Although representing Waikato was the pinnacle of his career, playing at Te Awamutu Sports previous to the professional era was on par with that for Doug.
“Guys were playing for the team and not switching clubs for money - that was special. Seeing a young guy come in, mature and develop over the years into a great rugby player [is priceless].”
He says that included the likes of Ian Foster, who was always at training, always there early and “wasn’t bigger than the game”.
“If you had a young guy coming along, Fozzie would stay after training and help him with skills – he was an absolute Te Awamutu Sports team man. I always thought he would make a good coach,” says Doug.
“Richard Adam was the most gifted athlete that I ever came across. His ball skills, his passion for the game, and his fitness, very seldom you would see Richard get an injury. I admired the guy.
“And the likes of Dave Livingstone, who I always thought was underrated. If you were struggling, Dave could just come on the field, and his presence there alone would lift the team.”
Many years of great times, experiences and connections on the field have given Doug countless memories and stories to share off the field - and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Veteran Sam Cane is given his farewell test appearance.