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12 July 2013: Petone lock Chris "Bushy" Molenaar plays his 200th match for Petone this weekend against OBU. The following article is courtesy of? Petone Rugby:?

?When ‘Bushy’ played his 150th game the occasion was over shadowed by the fact it was also the Petone rugby Club’s 125th Anniversary. This weekend he plays his 200th Premier game against OBU and the day is all his, the club will be honouring this fantastic achievement with a presentation at the post match in the club rooms.
Chris came to the Petone club from Riversdale where his family farm sheep and beef to attend the CIT in Petone as an engineering student. He landed a job just a few hundred metres down Udy Street from the rugby club. Not long after finishing his apprenticeship the business was put up for sale. Chris scraped everything he could together and bought out his boss; aptly renaming the business Petone Engineering and the decision to go on his own is now paying off, employing four staff.

Chris’s father Tony is a life member of the East Coast Rugby Club, which is part of the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union. It was there where Bush, as he is best known at Petone, learnt his rugby along with his three brothers (hence the nickname from us city slickers). Youngest brother Robbie played at Petone for the Senior Seconds while another, Tim, plays professional rugby in England for Gloucester. Fourth brother Anthony claims the title as the best rugby player out of the four siblings but no longer plays the game, instead owning a panel beating business on the Sunshine Coast.

His parents travel over the Rimutakas at every chance they get. But duties at the Riversdale Golf Club where mum Vicky works and at the East Coast Rugby Club where Tony is a tireless worker and runs the bar, limits this to a few times per season.

Bush is the type of player that every club would love to have and could be described as the ultimate club player, regarded as not big enough for a lock at higher honours and blessed by the fact that he has been available for club play almost continuously since his Premier debut in 2001. Having played every 'Star Lock' thats come and gone in Wellington for over a decade, not one of them has ever got the better of him.

His no-nonsense style of play has seen him targeted by some teams, who try to wind him up; occasionally this has seen him spend time in the bin for his 'Self Defence'. Only once has Chris been red carded and this was by NZs top referee at the time, Lyndon Bray. At the judiciary hearing, the powers that be, viewed the video and virtually threw the case out by giving him a one week suspension.

Amazingly, representative honours never came Chris’s way until 2008 when Wellington B’s and now Lions coach, Richard Watt selected him in his squad, where he became a regular starter. His biggest claim to fame though at rep level was his finding of a mounted Angus Bull’s head in a rubbish skip in New Plymouth. He carried this through the city back to the team hotel, by no means a small piece of luggage; the head travelled with the team to every game for the rest of the season. Unfortunately Chris’s good run with injuries did not extend to his rep career when he had to withdraw from the 2009 'B' squad for surgery on a busted thumb sustained during the Jubilee Cup round.

One of Chris’s greatest moments was captaining the Premiers to a Jubilee Cup win in 2005; even this though couldn’t top his marriage to wife Claire and the subsequent birth of daughter Emily and son Sam. Claire, Emily and Sam are Bush’s biggest fans and no one screams louder than Claire when Bushy is charging ball in hand.

Always one of the fittest players on the park, Bush has competed in every Petoneman (except this year because of illness) since its inception as an individual, and always finishes well up the field.

Always a clubman; his engineering skills are often called upon around the clubrooms and examples of his work can be seen all around the club. Well known for his spit roasts, which he puts on several times a season, sometimes setting it up prior to a game and then rushing back after to tend to it; he is usually seen in the kitchen carving it up for all to enjoy. On one occasion he set it up pre-game only for a teammate of Scottish descent, (who shall remain nameless and for now we will call Zinny), to make an adjustment. Just after halftime the fire brigade arrived to extinguish the sacrificial lamb. Only the skill of Denise in the kitchen allowed everyone to enjoy roast for dinner that night.

His locking partnership with best mate Jonathan Cleland was the longest running of any team in the Premiership. Jonny played over 100 matches himself and is now the Premier coach. Chris travelled all the way to Canada to be Best Man at Jonathans wedding then the roles were reversed for Chris’s wedding. Both couples became parents within weeks of each other. Jonathan and Chris enjoy diving and cycling together over the summer months as well.

Rugby Unions run Academies for star players then complain about the costs involved. They should look at the lessons the young guys could learn from playing alongside players like Bushy, and that’s not just on the field.

As injuries begin to take their toll on the rugged tight-head lock, we might be lucky to see Christopher Gerard Molenaar back next year. It’s a testament to his character that he came back this season to help the club rebuild, following the serious neck and shoulder injury sustained last year, on top of a burst appendix in the off season. From the current team only Thomas Tupuivao has played more games.

If anyone was to clone the Perfect Club Rugby Player, then Bushy Molenaar’s DNA would really be a good place to start.