Rugby: Coastal fullback settling in fast

Will Johnston

Photo by: Spinna Photography

Coastal’s Hone Mathieson hasn’t taken long to settle into his new home.

Born and raised in Te Kuiti, the fullback moved south after being spotted by Taranaki last season and to improve his rugby career.

So far, it’s paying off as the 18-year-old has been a starting feature during Coastal’s unbeaten run in the CMK premier club rugby competition.

“I feel like I have settled into the Coast really well,” he said. “The players, coaches, managers and supporters have welcomed me in with open arms and I thank them for doing so.”

He’s adding value to the Coastal backline, including his game awareness and communication off the ball.  

Not long out of school, he admits he found club rugby “a little intimidating” after coming through King Country’s age group representative scene. He’s noticed the competition here is hands on and he feels it will prepare himself to take his career to the next level.

“The quality and standard from this competition is nothing like I have seen before. Coming from the King Country, you never get NPC or Super Rugby representatives as we do over here.”

He said it gives him more motivation against those players as it drives him to achieve at their level.  

Mathieson has already had a taste of the high-performance game after playing for the New Zealand Māori U18s last year and Chiefs U20s earlier this season.

His ambitions including hoping to help Coastal win a title – their first since 2012 – and to be snapped up into Taranaki’s age-group rep scene. Mathieson has the big goal of one day representing Taranaki at first-class level.

For now, his focus is with Coastal as the team hosts Southern in week four of the championship round at Opunake on Saturday. The club is celebrating 125 years of rugby at Opunake. 

He said his vision for the game is an advantage after he has played at first-five eighth in recent times.

“I am developing my kicking game and have found out in previous games it can be clinical.”

But the contest during the match will be in the forwards. Southern will have an edge with the experience of former Irish international Michael Bent. However, Coastal will have confidence after they powered through Inglewood last week.

Back in town, Tukapa will want to improve their second half when they play Clifton at Sanders Park.

The home team let Stratford-Eltham score 17 unanswered points last week, while Clifton had a commanding win over Spotswood United.

Tukapa’s first half showed impressive signs as it was their most attractive rugby of the season.

Defending champions New Plymouth Old Boys host Inglewood at Vogeltown Park and Spotswood United play Stratford-Eltham at Yarrow Stadium in the remaining matches.

All matches kick off at 2:45pm.

In the women’s competition, Tukapa host Coastal-Okaiawa combined, and Inglewood play Clifton at TET Stadium. Both games are at 12:30pm.