Ope Peleseuma looking forward to next stage of career

Above: Ope Peleseuma playing for Hutt Old Boys in their recent Jubilee Cup round one win over Marist St Pat’s. He scored a hat-trick in this game.

Loyalty to his family, to his friends and to his rugby teams is a big theme in Ope Peleseuma’s life.

Still only 21, the Hutt Old Boys Marist midfield back already has an impressive CV as he prepares to embark on the next phase of his rugby career, joining the Taranaki ITM Cup squad later in July.

Peleseuma spent two seasons in the New Zealand Secondary Schools team, played in the New Zealand U20 team at last year’s Junior World Cup in South Africa and made his ITM Cup debut for the Wellington Lions last September. A current member of the Hurricanes Wider Training Group, he scored a try in Friday’s Hurricanes non-competition win over the Crusaders in Levin.

Peleseuma is a star on the rise. He’s a gifted ball player with a beautiful step and vision to match. But his feet are firmly on the ground as he prepares to head to Taranaki.

“I’m looking forward to it and I’m really excited about joining Taranaki and the experience of playing in another area. It will be good to get involved with them and showcase what I can do and hopefully I will get some game time up there.”

Peleseuma has signed a two-year deal with the amber and blacks, replacing Jayden Hayward who now plays with the Western Force in Australia.

He’s got a two-year old son, Azarhya, and he and his partner have a second child on the way, due at the end of August. He says that he’s heading up to Taranaki on his own while his young family will stay behind in Wellington with the support of his extended family.

Showing loyalty to his friends, there’s the myth of him starring for his HOBM side in the first half of a Premier club match, sprinting away to score a try on the stroke of halftime and instead of re-joining his teammates in the halftime huddle running off across the road to his mate’s wedding.

He can confirm there is some accuracy to the story. “It was the same day as the McBain Shield match against Petone. I had a good mate’s wedding on that day. I didn’t want to miss the game and also let my teammates down, so I went to the wedding ceremony and then shot to the game, played the first half and then I left at halftime to go to the reception.”

He also confirmed that at the end of 2009, after making the New Zealand Secondary Schools side for the first time, he was offered a rugby scholarship at the then National Top Four champions Hamilton Boys’ High School, an aggressive sporting school.

But he turned the offer down. “I went up and had a look but I felt it wasn’t me. I’d always enjoyed being part of St Pat’s Silverstream and part of tradition there so returned to Silverstream in 2010 and captained the side.”

On captaining the Silverstream side he “let his actions speak louder than words”, adding that he preferred “leading by example and trying to get the team to follow. It really paid off towards the end of the campaign. We managed to get from hardly winning any games in round-robin to ending up in the Hurricanes regional final.”

The side made a poor start to the season losing five out of six traditional games, the worst performance since 1992. However they qualified in fourth place for the semi-finals. In the finals, Ope played his best rugby as Silverstream got within a dog’s whisker of playing in the National Top Four. They upset Wellington College, 12-10 in the semi-final. St Pats Town, whom they had lost to for the first time since 1997, were defeated 21-13 in the final. Then they beat Napier Boys’ High School 15-13 in the Hurricanes semi-final and lost 11-15 due to a last minute try to Gisborne Boys’ High School.

The school magazine The Blue and White noted that Pelesuema’s “work rate on and off the field was inspirational…He was a devastating attacker and defender. He was picked for the New Zealand Schools team that beat Australia by 30-21 and featured fellow Wellington players TJ Perenara, Joe Latta, Tupou Sopoaga.

On leaving school, Pelesuema says choosing Hutt Old Boys Marist as his Senior club was a no-brainer. “that’s the club I played for as a junior and I always had HOBM on my mind to return to when I left school.”His post-school career suffered an early setback when he ruptured his ACL. “ I did it playing for the Eagles at the Mount Sevens tournament. I had space on the outside, but I was pretty tired so I tried to step in and injured my knee.”

He fought back in 2012, however, to star for HOBM in several matches over the first half of the season, helping HOBM win the Siwindale Shield.This was followed by selection in the New Zealand U20 team for the Junior World Cup in South Africa. Although New Zealand lost its title, missing out to the Junior Springboks 16-22 in the final, Pelesuema rates this as a career highlight so far.

“Even though we didn’t come away with the win, that experience was huge, playing in front of a massive home crowd against the South Africans in the final.”

Returning home, he played for the Wellington Development XV in early representative matches and then made his ITM Cup starting debut against North Harbour before a cartilage injury cut his season short.

Asked to name his favourite player growing up, Peleseuma nominated Tana Umaga. “He was definitely someone who I looked up to growing up. I also liked watching Robbie Fruean - and getting to play him last Friday in the match in Levin was awesome.”

At the time of this interview? Peleseuma was unclear exactly when he is heading to Taranaki to join his new amber and black teammates, but he will certainly miss playing in the Jubilee Cup semi-finals and final, should HOBM qualify.

He says he hopes to at least be available for their next three matches, against Old Boys University this Saturday at home, Oriental-Rongotai next Saturday at home and then Poneke away.

He adds that winning the Jubilee Cup for the first time since 2007 would mean a lot for him and his club. “It would be a huge achievement for the boys. Not only those that are playing but also the supporters who come every Saturday and support us regardless of weather or results. We’ve got some pretty die-hard Eagles supporters.”