Late bloomer Pearson taking his sevens opportunities

Above: Max Pearson meets Northern United's Perry Hayman head on in a Swindale Shield match in early 2016 and inset with the American Ambassador's Trophy after captaining the Upper Hutt Rams to tournament victory in November. 

Sometimes an injury and a spell on the sideline can be a blessing in disguise.

That was certainly the case for Max Pearson, when a nasty bicep injury he sustained in 2014 playing for his club side the Upper Hutt Rams and half a club season and six months spent out of the game made him reassess his goals.

“This is only my second year of playing sevens,” said Pearson, a physical education teacher at Heretaunga College, the school he left for the final time as a student more than a decade ago.

“In 2014 I pulled my bicep whilst playing club rugby for the Upper Hutt Rams against Northern United and that injury made me think whether to keep playing or get into something else. I made the decision to keep playing rugby and commit to it fully.

“That was at the start of 2015 and that was when I also cracked on and played sevens.”

By the end of 2015 he was representing the All Black Sevens in a HSBC World Sevens tournament in Cape Town.

“I’ve always played rugby and I’ve always played decent rugby but never gone all in with it, so choosing to do so and getting the call up to play for New Zealand in my first year of committing to it properly was awesome and I’ve been loving it.”

Who said sevens is a young man’s game? “I am definitely one of the oldest in age, but I am still fresh to the sport.”

Returning to the field in 2015 he scored 16 tries in 20 Premier club rugby starts. Wellington sevens coach and now interim New Zealand co-coach Scott Waldrom was impressed with his work rate, speed and strength, and picked him up in his pre-season Wellington squad. Then in October 2015, Sir Gordon Tietjens called him up for the New Zealand development side which won the Noosa Sevens tournament.

“It all kind of just happened”, he explained, ”after the Noosa tournament I was selected for the All Black Sevens last December for the Cape Town tournament, and that was a bit unexpected but I took my opportunities and that was an awesome experience.”

The Wellington side went on to lose to North Harbour at the Cup semi-final stage of last year’s national provincial tournament at Rotorua in his first nationals.

This coming Saturday, Pearson and Wellington play in the BoP 7s at Mt Maunganui and then fly up north again on 14 and 15 January for this year’s nationals.

After that for Pearson and the Upper Hutt Rams it’s the National Club Sevens for the Middlesex Cup in Hamilton after Hamilton side Melville won hosting rights for the 4 and 5 February tournament by edging the Rams at the start of last year at Wainuiomata.

“We’re looking forward to that tournament, hopefully we can do well. After that it’s straight into 15s, so there’s not much of a break, especially for us Rams because we enjoy our sevens.”

Pearson spent his year nine and ten secondary school years at Rongotai College before shifting to Heretaunga College for the final three years at school. By extension he calls the Upper Hutt Rams and Maidstone Park home.

But he’s also played elsewhere, leaving school and spending five years in Palmerston North where he was a Manawatu U20 representative in 2006 and played for the province at Maori and B team level as well.

In Palmerston North he donned the sky blue Varsity club colours, the same club that Nehe Milner-Skudder now plays for.

Pearson has no plans to take his rugby offshore. “For me I’m just grinding here locally and teaching at Heretaunga, which is my passion and I love to help out the young people who were like me back in the day.

“I kind of went the other way and got my career sorted and got into the swing of that and now I can play rugby because I love it.”

Here’s hoping Max Pearson continues to enjoy playing for a while longer yet.