'I couldn't see myself ever going back': How New Zealand Rugby nearly lost its next big star to the NRL
Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens hardly let the ink on his final high school exam dry before his professional rugby career took off.
Hailing from Francis Douglas Memorial College – the New Plymouth rugby nursery responsible for producing All Blacks such as the Barrett brothers, Conrad Smith, Liam Coltman and Du’Plessis Kirifi – Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens was thrust into the national sevens set-up at their Mount Maunganui headquarters after signing a two-year deal at the end of 2019.
“I finished my last exam at school and that same day went up to join the team,” the new Blues signing told RugbyPass.
Having already represented the New Zealand Schools side in 2018 and 2019, attaining national honours wasn’t new to Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.
But, as a fresh high school graduate that had only been playing 1st XV rugby a few months beforehand, being so urgently called upon by the most title-laden sevens organisation on the planet was still a very rapid rise for the teenager.
Even if he was taking part in a development capacity, aspirations of playing at the Olympics and on the World Sevens Series loomed large in Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens’ mind.
That’s still the case in spite of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which denied Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens a debut for the All Blacks Sevens last year.
“The last tournament they played was in America and Canada, and then the next tournament was kind of like a rest for the older boys that had played every tournament to freshen them up for the Olympics,” he recalled of last season’s World Sevens Series.
“I had some comms about hopefully debuting in Hong Kong and Singapore, but when the boys got back from Canada, that’s when we went into lockdown and kept that dream on hold.”
Had he not been the target of three separate recruitment ploys from the Blues, Chiefs and Hurricanes ahead of the upcoming Super Rugby season, Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens could well have been in line to make his long-awaited All Blacks Sevens debut whenever the World Sevens Series returns.
While no timeline has been set on when World Rugby’s global sevens circuit will be up and running once again as border closures remain in place, donning the black jersey in the abbreviated format of the game remains a big goal for the 19-year-old.
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“Getting told you could debut and getting that taken out of your hands is a bit gutting, but I guess it’s kind of why I want to go back and hopefully the plan for the sevens team is to debut,” he said.
“We’ve got an honours board in the changing room. Seeing my name up there alongside some of the greats could be a bit of a cool feeling.
“I’m still optimistic. Whatever happens with the whole COVID thing, if the borders open, and the opportunity came up to debut, I’d take it with both hands.”
Just how his commitments with the Blues will fit in with those plans remains to be seen, but, for rugby fans across New Zealand, juggling Super Rugby with sevens is a far better predicament for Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens to have than having him lost to rugby league.
That is exactly what could have transpired following the aggressive push for the youngster’s signature by NRL clubs in Australia during his early days at high school.
Although the excitement of interest from teams and clubs he had grown up watching as an avid rugby league fan was immense, it also proved to be the start of a tumultuous period that forced Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens to decide early on where his sporting allegiances laid.
“It was a weird time,” he told RugbyPass.
“We just played our U15 sevens Condors tournament. We went alright, and then my mum’s phone was blowing up a bit. It had some league scouts messaging her and ringing her.”
Those league scouts happened to be from the Newcastle Knights, the club of which he travelled to in 2016 to gain his first taste of a professional sporting environment.
“I enjoyed that, it was really cool. At the time, when you’re that young, taken overseas for free, it’s a lot to take in,” Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, who at that stage was only 15-years-old, said.
“Went there for a week, enjoyed that, and then there was a Pacific tournament in Auckland on the weekend that I flew back in.
“I played that, and then mum and I met this guy from Parramatta who said they would be keen to do a similar thing and show me the area, have a bit of a camp, so I went over there, maybe just for the weekend.”
One weekend turned into a three-year contract with the Eels, with Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens signing a deal that would see him travel from New Plymouth to western Sydney on a regular basis for training camps and games through until his final year of school.
In Year 13, the plan was to move to Parramatta permanently, where the prospect of a career in the NRL would have been in reach.
There are, without doubt, thousands of league-adoring youngsters who would do anything to be in the position that Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens had found himself.
Few that age can command a three-year deal with an NRL club with a history as rich and proud as Parramatta’s, so it’s understandable that Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens’ focus was so firmly fixated on the 13-man code at that point in time.
“We had our first 1st XV season for rugby back in school, and at the time I was playing league, and I was thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think I can go back to rugby’. I was just really invested in league,” he said.
“I couldn’t see myself ever going back to footy.”
That changed, though, when he took to the field for the Francis Douglas Memorial College 1st XV for the first time.
“I played the first season for the 1st XV with my older brother, and I fell back in love with footy.”
It was as simple as that.
The sentimental lure and purity of non-professional rugby rekindled a passion for the sport, but it soon dawned on Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens that he had contractually bound himself into the wrong decision by signing with the Eels.
“It was in the back of my head that it was a few years away, but I was thinking, ‘I won’t be able to do my last year of school here, I wouldn’t be able to finish off 1st XV if I go to Australia’.
“I was having these talks with mum about it, and was thinking, ‘Maybe I’ve made the wrong decision’, obviously being 15 and you just see some money being put on the table and a bit of paper that you just sign, you sign your name away.”
“I was sitting in the sheds, and I just remember crying thinking, I can’t take it. I can’t take the emotional stress and I can’t take the disappointment anymore." https://t.co/2rVsXi0ent pic.twitter.com/rMbsh6LBJJ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 18, 2021
A return to Parramatta midway through 2017 proved to be the final nail in the coffin in confirming that he had made the wrong choice.
Homesickness and the brutality of the club’s youth system took its toll on Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens on the other side of the Tasman Sea.
“It just wasn’t the same, as in when they’re trying to get you, they’re trying to show you what they have to offer, and I guess when you sign, you’re not forgotten about, but you don’t know who to talk to if you need something or your mates.
“Even though I was there for four days, I was already homesick. I just wanted to be back.”
Fortunately, one of his older brothers had an agent who managed to weave Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens out of his deal with the Eels, enabling him to stay in New Plymouth and focus strictly on rugby.
Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens said the complexity of NRL contracts meant it wasn’t a smooth process, with an agreement to terminate the contract only coming after about half a year of negotiations.
Regardless, he is thankful for how things have panned out since then.
“Even now, I’m really happy I made that decision, and in my last year of school, I was a bit more grateful to be with my mates instead of bloody 40 degree weather, snakes everywhere,” Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens laughed.
With a Super Rugby debut imminent, and Olympic aspirations still intact, it seems that rugby league’s loss is very much going to be rugby union’s gain.
Comments on RugbyPass
I bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
4 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
19 Go to comments