2006 - Try-scorer Tristan Moran recalls historic first match
Tasman and Marlborough team mates Mark Stewart and Cory Holdaway congratulate Tristan Moran after his last-minute try in the province's inaugural match against North Harbour in 2006.
Sunday, July 30, 2006 is a day Tristan Moran will never forget.
The venue - Blenheim's rugby headquarters, Lansdowne Park. The occasion – the Tasman Makos' inaugural national provincial championship match. The opponent – North Harbour.
Moran, one of three Marlborough players in the 28-strong trail-blazing Makos squad, was not originally named in the match-day 22, but made the cut when skipper Greg Feek was ruled out with injury.
The 22 year-old Marlborough-born prop sat with the reserves and watched an exciting match unfold before, late in the second half, he was given his chance to make an impression.
Which he did. With time up on the ground clock Moran popped up to score the Makos' third try which, when converted, enabled Tasman to grab their first competition point in a 33-27 loss.
The modest front rower recalls the historic moment with both pride and humour.
"I was pretty nervous about my opponent, who played for the Blues, but after the first couple of scrums I realised that they are only human as well, not much better than yourself.
"I remember scoring the try. I was absolutely buggered. I'd been running around like a headless chook in my first game trying to chase everything. I got up from a ruck or something, trying to make my way back to the play, then I looked up and our winger, Ali Durrant, had made a break and was right beside me, with only the fullback to beat. He passed me the ball and there was non-one near me, so I just cantered to the line.
"But when you watch it on TV it looks like I was right there in support," he says with a laugh.
He also remembers that he had suffered an elbow injury in a pre-season camp and that, in a bid to get fit for the Harbour match, had over-indulged in the painkillers. "It was my first time taking [anti-inflammatories]. I took a heap of Voltaren and didn't eat with them. Man, it just stripped my insides. I was more crook from the bloody Voltaren than the elbow."
Moran was the first Marlborough player to sign a Makos contract and recalls the Marlborough Express carried a front page article and photograph of the occasion. "I still remember that vividly. I was quite proud actually.
"Just because I am from Blenheim and Dad played for Marlborough, and my granddad played for Marlborough. We are a Marlborough family and I'm proud of the area.
"Playing for Marlborough as well, I really loved that. It's a special thing when you play for your home province … sometimes your highest achievements aren't always your greatest ones. In my case there was nothing better than playing for Marlborough and Tasman. That was pretty special, in front of your family and friends on the sideline.
"And playing on that ground [Lansdowne Park]. It's unique to me. Even now when I go down to help Harlequins train, I think, 'I've been running around on this ground since I was five years old'.
"I can remember Dad, who coached us, telling me off and standing me under the posts because I wouldn't listen. It's got a lot of memories."
After four seasons with the Makos, and 39 games, Moran accepted a contract with Bay of Plenty in the NPC and moved north.
He has played for three Super Rugby franchises - as a Crusaders wider squad member in 2007, then being picked up by the Chiefs and winding up his career with the Hurricanes.
Now, three prolapsed discs in his neck have brought the 31 year-old's career to an untimely end.
"It happened at a Hurricanes training. We were doing some scrum work at practice, then the scrum collapsed and my neck went down funny and that was it."
"My whole right side went numb. I couldn't even hold a cup of tea in the end. I would just drop stuff. I couldn't do any exercise.
What particularly irked Moran was the fact he had begun the season in fine form, grabbing a starting position with the 'Canes and watching his rugby career taking shape.
"As a prop, because I was always smaller I had slowly developed and I thought, 'now it's my time, I can finally get some starts … I thought I had just found my feet.
"It was a bugger … but that's life though, there's always people worse off than you," he adds philosophically.
Now he embarks on a long road to recovery, seeking full fitness and a return to work. The surgeons have suggested his playing days are behind him, so Moran is looking at other ways to remain involved in the game.
"I would like to get into coaching. I love rugby, and the challenge. It would be good to still be involved in some aspect."
