Bruce Sutton – Born to coach

Ian Snook 

It would be hard to find a person who has a bad word to say about Bruce Sutton, maybe the North Harbour coach at the National 7’s in 1998 whose team had luckily beaten Taranaki and was told so by Bruce in no uncertain terms, but apart from him, others know Bruce as a well loved and respected Taranaki rugby personality. And that he is – a personality!

Affable, comical, humble, upbeat, adaptable, aware and rugby intelligent. He is all of these and a lot more. Bruce began his rugby journey nearly 70 years ago in Rahotu playing with many well-known Coastal names such as Leatherby, Horo, Dobbin and McCarty. This was the start of a playing, coaching, mentoring and now critiquing lifetime in the game he loves. There have been many, many friendships established along the way and a plethora of stories to tell – all with a smile and a laugh.

“I couldn’t help it. It’s in our blood. It’s our game. You find out about yourself. You learn to control yourself, even when Dean Magon changes the moves!” This is Bruce. His passion overflows as he outlines every detail of certain games.

And rugby is in Bruce’s blood. His father Marcus Sutton represented Manawatu, Southland and Taranaki as well as being an All Black trialist in the late 1930’s. The hunger for the game has never waned - firstly as an undersized flanker and then as a smallish crash-tackling second-five-eighth. He can still remember every tackle he missed since an early age and will describe in great detail what he could have done differently.

Denis Sole was Bruce’s flanker companion at Spotswood College where he and Denis had to cover for the non-tackling first-five Neil Cleaver and then it was on to woodsmans school at Kaingoroa which contained a lot of growing up and playing really tough junior rugby in Rotorua.

Here Bruce found his niche scoring lots of tries in his new position in the backs either at halfback or second-five and he was selected for Bay of Plenty Juniors. Being greedy was his main skill according to a smiling Bruce, and hence the tries. There was no mention of his acceleration and having the ability to find gaps, so we’ll stick with greed.

He did remember a tackle he missed when selected for a sub-union game (internal provincial representative games) when he marked a future All Black Owen Stephens – he had very big legs according to Bruce.

Then it was off to Wairoa, still in the forestry business, and yet more hard-hitting junior rugby. He recalls being selected for a Hawkes Bay Maori team but gratefully declining. Quite often at Wairoa he would play two games in an afternoon, firstly for the Juniors and then he would run on with the senior side. Life was good.

At 17 Bruce headed back to Taranaki and Te Wera forestry. This began his long association with the Spotswood Rugby Club where he would later become a Life Member after years of playing and coaching. Every Thursday he would take the long trek from Te Wera to New Plymouth and return, so he could play with his old school mates such as Phil Webber, Malcolm McAlpine and of course Denis Sole. He would then repeat the journey in the weekend.

He also got snapped up by Kevin O’Brien the Strathmore Dean Cup coach, which helped him settle in to his new surroundings. He could not get enough of the game.

Not long after his return to Taranaki Bruce married Vicki; a relationship which is as strong now as it was then. He was then selected for the Spotswood seniors which began a fifteen year senior career, playing alongside the likes of Brian Reeve, Warren Beard, Russell Jefferies and Viv Wilson in those early days.

Next the Taranaki Colts came calling. Here he would rub shoulders with such luminaries as future All Black John McEldowney and world ranked squash player Murray Lilley, captain Ray Rowson and David Vesty, Mike Bridger, Bill Read and John Foreman to name a few. Future All Black coach Peter Burke and Taranaki coach Don Carlson were a couple of the educators during that period. Bruce was soaking in plenty of information, making his tackles, and scoring his share of tries.

Following three seasons in the colts he was selected for Taranaki ‘B’ for three more and was a regular Taranaki trialist in the days where four trial teams battled it out at Stratford. By then he had sorted out his passing game and he prides himself on making the break which set up Alistair Scown to score, as pictured in the paper.

Following fifteen seasons of Spotswood running the ball and attacking from all over the park Bruce moved on from playing. It had been a great period. The boys had built the clubrooms themselves at Marfell Park and there had been many great games and nights with the likes of Roy Wetini, Kevin Jones, Ian Barr, Dennis Whiting, John Fleming, John Standish, Bruce Jackson and Ian Garner.

The memories are still alive – beating Clifton for the first time, 4th place in the Top 6, being kicked by the Star halfback when things weren’t running his way [not Rowson], victories over Opunake and Okato, and just the general flair and fun which the team portrayed.

And to make sure Bruce got his ‘fill’ of rugby during the week he often turned out for the Trojans, a group of retired former Taranaki players who pitted themselves against local 1st XV’s. Many of them by this stage were better at talking than playing and Bruce loved this comradeship. He continued as a squad member for numerous seasons once he began his coaching and started advancing in years. After all, he could talk it up with the rest of them.

Subsequently the Trojans group would lead to Bruce and Vicki having one of life’s great experiences when they travelled to California for the first ever Golden Oldies Tournament, alongside the likes of Murray Wills, Ash Gardner, Brendon O’Niell, Ray Rowson, Dave McGee and Ricca Potts. A visit to a few other spots such as San Diego, Las Vegas and Hawaii made for a fantastic trip.

At 33 years of age Bruce headed off to the Senior 4ths as a player-coach and here he really found his calling. Over the next seven seasons there was a senior 4th championship, two under 17 championships, twice beaten finalist in the Under 19’s and two third placings in the Under 19’s and 21’s. Bruce’s knowledge of the game, his ability to empower his players, his understanding of individuals, and the realization that ‘team spirit’ could be, and needed to be, developed from the top down, made him an instant success. He was a coaching ‘natural’.

He says he coached because no one else would do it, but he would have been the ‘choice’ of many. All Bruce’s teams were happy and played entertaining rugby.

Following the amalgamation between Spotswood and Star, Bruce found his coaching expertise was not required at the new club. This was a big mistake to be sure. However, New Plymouth Old Boys came calling, and that began a period of repeating successes.

NPOB won the senior championship in 1993 and 94 with assistance from player-coach Neil Barnes, and Bruce was at the helm again in 2000 when they were the champions following his return from

coaching in Canada. They were beaten finalists in 1999, and later there were championships with Kaitake (Senior Reserve grade) in 2005 and 06, and the NPOB senior 3rd side in 2011.

These successes were alongside his time in Canada where he coached the Meraloma side in Vancouver to two seasons of playing in the finals, having lifted them from the lower half of the table. He also coached the womens Meraloma side to two championships at the same time, but his biggest smiling victory was when he coached the British Columbia Presidents XV to victory over the NZ Youth Team coached by Sid Going and Mark Shaw and containing four future All Blacks. Once again he had out-thought more illustrious opponents.

In Vancouver he coached every day of the week at high schools and introduced many children to rugby for the first time.

Vancouver was great to Bruce and Vicki. The people were friendly and Vancouver was beautiful. In many ways it was a richly deserved reward for years of rugby input, but of course there was no Eddie Jones attached salary. For Bruce though that was not important.

Prior to Canada Bruce’s coaching prowess was called upon by Taranaki. In 1990 and 91 he was part of the Under 19 coaching team in conjunction with Bryce McEldowney, which were very successful squads, and in 1992 and 93, along with Ranfurly Shield winning coach Graham O’Brien, they ran a very successful Colts campaign.

The 1993 side lost only once in that season against North Harbour, and were victorious against all others including Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Wellington and Manawatu.

There was plenty of talent in this side lead by the now Sport Taranaki CEO Michael Carr, and including the likes of Chris Luke, Ryan Wheeler, Scott Lines, Theo Anderson, Mark Gardner, Warwick Milham, and Dawson Tamati.

As well, in that same year, Bruce was the Taranaki Rugby Personality of the Year based on his services to the game. The respect Bruce held in the rugby community was never better illustrated than upon receiving this award.

Following his return from Canada he worked for the Taranaki RFU Development Officer Peter Harold as a Taranaki Staff Coach, who was available to coach at schools and clubs. He also co-coached the Taranaki Development team in in 1998, and was appointed Taranaki Sevens coach in 1999 and 2000, coaching with ex-Taranaki halfback Ra Mako. A top four spot in Rotorua should have, could have, been a finals spot, according to Bruce. Rugby is like that of course.

In 2009 along came a ‘Citizens Award’ presented by the New Plymouth District Council. This showed that even away from rugby he was a respected person who contributed in many ways to society. As well as the rugby Bruce has been in local bands since returning to New Plymouth and can still be found wooing the masses at various occasions as part of the Bald Eagles.

Nowadays Bruce is mainly used as a sounding board by those who are keen to discover what they are not seeing. His views are straight forward and clear. Although clarity is not always easy to come by. Upon asking him to name his favourite XV from all the different teams he coached he came up with a touring squad big enough to travel away and play unhindered by injuries for a few months.

He did add that he had trouble selecting a team when he only had 16 to choose from. That is Bruce. He always finds something positive in every player.

Not many have contributed so much to Taranaki rugby over such a long period and in such a charismatic way. Bruce is certainly a true ‘rugby man’.

 

Ian Snook is a former Taranaki and Central Districts cricketer and represented Taranaki in rugby.