On Saturday Joel Leo was part of the Mid Canterbury A rugby side, but next week he’s in Taupo as part of the Heartland Under-19 side. Photo Tupea Elia Mata’uA young front-rower who plied his trade for the Celtic senior rugby side this year will next week run onto the field in Taupo as part of the Heartland Under-19 side.

When the Heartland team for the Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under-19 Tournament was named late last week, Ioelu (Joel) Leo’s name was there. And no one was more surprised than the 19-year-old himself.

He finished work at ANZCO and checked his phone to find a missed call. He rang the number back and discovered it was the Heartland under-19 team coach.

“I was like ‘for real?’. And he said ‘yeah, I’m ringing you with the good news’,” Leo said.

The Jock Hobbs tournament was a key calendar event for New Zealand’s emerging young rugby talent and it would kick off at Owen Delany Park in Taupo on Sunday, and would feature a combined team selected from Heartland Championship provinces, coached by Horowhenua Kapiti’s Aleni Feagaiga.

It was the biggest opportunity of Leo’s career so far and he planned to make the most of it.

Like many young rugby players, his dream was to one to become a professional rugby player and he was working hard to go as far as he could, and keen to learn.

Leo came to New Zealand from Samoa with his parents and sister around six years ago and his family have been a tremendous support. Leo said his grandmother rang him from Samoa every Saturday morning with words of encouragement.

He attended Ashburton College and aside from a year playing for the school’s first XV, he had played for Celtic since he arrived.

He’d represented Mid Canterbury through the age groups and this year was part of the Mid Canterbury A development side and, although he was nominated to play for New Zealand Marist this year, he didn’t make the cut.

He was disappointed to have missed out on that but was over the moon to have made the Heartland Under-19 team.

A hooker who is also capable of playing either propping position, Leo heads to Taupo not knowing how much of a role he’ll get to play in the tournament, but with games being televised he was determined to play to the best of his ability.

“I’ve just got to do my best and hopefully it will come through,” Leo said.

The side’s coach Feagaiga said having a Heartland team encouraged young players to stay involved in the game beyond college and aspire to be part of the tournament, while giving them real opportunities to develop their game.

There were four players who were currently playing in the Heartland Championship included in the squad.

“It’s great that these guys can remain playing for their Heartland Union, but also be involved in a national set-up where they can stick their hand up for the New Zealand U20s team,” Feagaiga said.

While most teams had been together for a few weeks, the Heartland team would only get a couple of training runs before the tournament kicked off. Leo headed north yesterday to meet up with his team-mates.

The tournament would run until September 15 and was part of a week-long event that saw the teams assemble on Saturday, and included development programmes for the players, parents, coaches and referees which were run on the non-game days.

There were also position specific workshops with Super Rugby coaches, as well as sessions focusing on player education and life skills.

The tournament would involve 16 teams and around 400 players, with one team from each of the Mitre 10 Cup provincial unions competing along with an Auckland development team and the combined Heartland team.

Auckland A and Counties Manukau headed into the tournament as defending champions of the Graham Mourie Cup and Michael Jones Trophy respectively.

By Erin Tasker© The Ashburton Guardian - 7 September 2018