Hautapu's older statesman a mentor for younger players

BY AARON GOILE

Keith Lowen has copped plenty of stick while on the rugby field for Hautapu this year.

But the former Waikato, Chiefs and one-test All Black midfielder has been an integral part of the club and a mentor for the younger players, and has seen the lighter side of his taking the field at the ripe age of 36.

"I get heaps of cheap shots from opposition," Lowen said.

"It is pretty funny some of the comments you get."

Sumo, as he's known, has been a one-club man – at Hautapu since 1993.

He grew up in Huntly, went to Huntly College and was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to St Peter's School for his last two years.

"That had me in Cambridge so there was a natural progression to go to the Hautapu club after that," he said.

"I like the style that Hautap used to play, they would give it to the backs quite a lot.

"And we weren't a city club so we weren't favourites, we had the underdog tag. The feeling out in the club's pretty good, there's no real cliques out there, that's something some city clubs can suffer from."

Lowen has seen the club scene change a lot over the years and one of the big differences now is the lack of senior players that were around in his day.

"There's a lot of older players that are missing from club level.

"I remember when I first came in I was the only young guy there and I was surrounded by 26 [years]-plus people. Now I think our average age of Hautap is about 22 and that's with me included!"

After making his provincial debut for Bay of Plenty in 1996, Lowen first turned out for Waikato two years later and went on to play 83 games and score 44 tries for the Mooloos.

Although no particular games stick out in his memory, Lowen fondly remembers the occasions when the whole team played well, and that often came when the Ranfurly Shield was on the line.

"It was quite special defending it because all the boys got up for it, it was quite a good feeling," he said.

Lowen played just 46 minutes for the All Blacks, when he started against England in 2002, and a run of injuries limited his chances of making more of an impression.

In 2006 he went for a change of lifestyle as he joined the Cheetahs in the Super rugby competition, and he got an insight into how tough it was for South African teams touring for five straight weeks.

Following that Lowen played three seasons in Japan for NEC.

"I loved Japan. The rugby was a bit different.

"You can't compare it to anything here," he said, adding that the game there was quicker and that teams avoided sending big numbers into the rucks.

Having moved back here with his partner two years ago, Lowen now runs his own roadside rubbish collection business, sub-contracting to Waste Management, which has the Hamilton City Council contract.

"When I came back from Japan I was going to go to Italy to finish off for a year or so, like a retirement pension type of thing but I had a friend who had a rubbish truck and I just ran with him, throwing bags of rubbish on the truck to keep fit. And he just said `if you're interested there's a truck and a run for sale' so I looked at it and I liked what I saw and that's about it, the rest is history.

"It's been awesome."

Lowen still keeps a close eye on how the Waikato side perform and stays in contact with many of his rugby friends.

"I guess when you've played in the province that long it's hard not to.

"I've still got mates that are playing here, the likes of Liam [Messam] and there's other older guys that I played with when I was here, so I feel a strong tie there."

Lowen has taken to playing soccer on Sundays, which he is really enjoying, and we may yet see him grace the rugby fields again.

"Next year, we'll wait and see. I might have put on a few more pounds over summer time so I might have to start getting into it again."

- © Fairfax NZ News