Hunter Prescott enjoying Turbos country

Above: Hunter Prescott playing against Poneke in the annual Jimmy Grbich Shield match earlier this year. photo by Caswell Images. 

Earlier this year Oriental-Rongotai hooker Hunter Prescott left the Polo Ground and made the move up to Palmerston North.

After playing 10 straight games for Ories in Wellington’s club rugby Swindale Shield competition, the former Scots College captain transferred to Manawatu in a bid to play National Provincial Championship rugby.

“There was a log-jam of hookers in Wellington and the likes of Leni Apisai, Asafo Aumua and James O'Reilly [now at Bay of Plenty] are all good players so I had in the back of my mind that I might look somewhere else,” Hunter explained.

“I’m good mates with Ambrose Curtis and he was coming up to play the second round of club rugby and he suggested I look at it too. I talked to the coach, Jeremy Cotter, who said he hadn’t signed any hookers at that point so if you back yourself come up and give it a crack.”

The move also coincided with him finishing university last semester, after working towards a commerce degree.

He moved in to Ambrose’s flat and joined the Old Boys Marist club with Ambrose and 2015 Ories lock and another new Turbos squad member, Liam Hallam-Eames, and climbed into this work.

How was their club rugby season? “We were unbeaten for the second round and ended up losing to a penalty kick in the last play of our home semi-final, which was pretty disappointing.” The loss was to Varsity and they went on to win the Hankins Shield, beating Kia Toa in the final.

Speaking of losing matches in the last play, the following week he was down in Wellington at the Polo Ground acting as Ories’ water boy in their last-gasp Jubilee Cup round-robin loss to Old Boys University. Ories lost that match, but qualified for the semi-final ahead of OBU.

“It was funny in the changing room afterwards because the mood was pretty down; everyone thought the season was over. Then all of a sudden the manager spoke up and said actually we’ve got into the semi-finals ahead of OBU - everyone initially thought he was taking the piss! But then everyone went from one mood to another really fast.”

Ories, minus Hunter and Ambrose, went on to play and lose to Marist St Pat’s in the following week’s semi-final.

After being involved in the Turbos’ pre-season campaign, he made his debut for Manawatu against the Northland Taniwha last week, coming off the bench and helping his side clinch a 34-27 win.

“I’m happy that the move up here paid off and I got in the team and made by NPC debut last week. It was great to start the year with a bonus point win, but there are still a lot of things to work on.”

Manawatu play their next game tomorrow night. “It’s our first home game, and all the boys are looking forward to playing in front our crowd, including seeing the bucket heads out in force.”

Hunter has played a few times on CET Arena for Wellington representative teams and knows first-hand it can be tough for visiting teams.

A tradesman more in the classical hooker mould, Hunter has been playing senior rugby for six seasons.

In 2010 he was captain of the Scots College First XV that famously beat Wellington College 19-17, their first ever secondary schools competition Premiership win over Wellington College. 

“That was pretty big, especially because in my fifth and sixth form years [Years 11 and 12] we had lost to the Wellington College Second XV in the Premier 2 semi-final and then final. So it was massive to beat their First XV the following year.”

Leaving school, he moved over to Australia. “I went and lived in Canberra for a couple of years, and also played for the Brumbies U20s.”

How did that come about? “Our Scots College First XV coach Dave Meaclam put me on to it. That summer I was just taking a break and thinking about going to university in Wellington and he had a connection with the Vikings club over there and said why not head over there.”

Hunter was working in Canberra as well. “I ended up making ladders - I was in a factory making ladders for a year.”

Next stop was Dunedin.

“I went down there and started university and played for the Varsity club. Other players in that team included Matt Faddes, Paul Grant and Fa'asiu Fuatai. We actually lost our semi-final as well – so I think it must be me bringing a final curse to my teams!”

Returning to Wellington, he joined Ories, who incidentally were stopped at the Jubilee Cup semi-finals in both 2014 and 2015.

Needless to say, he’s hoping that his current side Manawatu can progress to the business end of the NPC Championship this year and have a tilt at regaining Premiership status.