All’s Fair with Love and Rugby

ALL'S FAIR WITH LOVE AND RUGBY: Former Junior All Black Matene Love is overseeing the development of the Wharewaka, a venue that will be a cultural focal point during RWC 2011.

Shrouded in an architectural cloak, Wellington’s newest building will become a cultural focal point for Rugby World Cup 2011 visitors.

Veteran rugby fan Matene Love is in charge of the waterfront Wharewaka project, literally translated as the “boat house” for the city.

The Wharewaka will celebrate the national commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on Waitangi Day, February 6, 2011. After that it will be all about Rugby until the opening ceremony of the Tournament, Mr Love says.

As an All Black trialist for the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987, Mr Love has watched the fervour surrounding the Webb Ellis Trophy escalate for the past 24 years.

“Nobody knew how big Rugby World Cup would become, it was a totally new concept back then. We didn’t realise what it would turn into.”

As the Rugby world prepares for the seventh Tournament, Mr Love is excited to be building Wellington’s own Maori cultural centre to welcome guests from around New Zealand and the world over.
“It will bring a unique cultural flavour to the city. It will include the history of Wellington, like a Maori heritage trail inside the city.”

The stylised boat house, home to the waka (canoe) of the mana whenua (local tribes), is designed to showcase exhibitions and events, welcoming guests in the Maori essence of manaakitanga, or the “responsibility upon a host to offer and experience of the very best we have to offer”.

“We want visitors coming to New Zealand who won’t be going to the traditional Maori areas to have a true taste of Maoridom.”

Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand follows on from the 2010 celebrations of 100 years of Maori Rugby.
Mr Love, a descendent of the local Wellington Te Ati Awa tribe, points out that the Tournament epitomises the love of sports within a lot of Maori communities and families.

“Maori have always had a very strong affinity to Rugby. We are a proud race, and a proud sporting group as well.”
As a junior All Black and a strong provincial Rugby star in the 1980s, Mr Love has followed on to attend three Rugby World Cup tournaments since.

He says the development of fledgling Rugby nations around the world is strengthened by the Tournament and promises a different world for the sporting code from when New Zealand first hosted and won the Webb Ellis Cup.

“The minnows of Rugby are starting to catch up, look at Russia, USA, the smaller African nations … most people think this will be the last time the Rugby World Cup will come to New Zealand.

“This is our best chance if we are ever going to win it.”