When we are looking back at our favourite memories of Pakuranga’s involvement in NPC rugby its hard to go past our first ever representative in the blue and white hoops – Peter Corlett.

Auckland play Waikato at our very own Bell Park this weekend - get tickets here.

Below is excerpts from an article originally written for the club’s jubilee celebrations.

The club so appreciated his commitment and loyalty, it invested him as a life member while he was still playing, and that's something that is extremely rare among rugby clubs anywhere in New Zealand.

His bloodlines suggested he was born to succeed in sport, for his mother was Yvette Corlett (nee Williams), who won a gold medal in the long jump at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 and who was one of New Zealand's most accomplished sportspeople.

His father Buddy Corlett ran the Panmure Young Citizens Centre for 21 years, older brother Neville represented New Zealand at basketball, sister Karen was a New Zealand rhythmic gymnastics champion and uncle Roy Williams (Yvette's brother) won the Commonwealth Games decathlon title at Jamaica in 1966.

Peter was extraordinarily talented himself, playing for New Zealand at junior basketball level and setting a national junior decathlon record.

When he was 17 he had to choose between basketball and rugby. "Rugby was the easy winner," he recalls, "because I enjoyed the camaraderie of the sport."

He says he never felt any pressure from having a famous mother. "She wasn't a gold medallist to me - she was mum," says Peter, "She never put any pressure on us to perform in sport."

Corlett would play for Pakuranga for 25 years before retiring in 1990.

In the late 1980s he helped spark what would be Pakuranga's most successful era until Wayne Pivac arrived in 2010 and transformed the club into a Gallaher Shield winning unit. 

Peter Corlett captained Pakuranga from midfield in 1989 when it won the Jubilee Trophy (the second tier competition after the Gallaher Shield), defeating Suburbs in the final at Eden Park.

It would be more than two decades before Pakuranga would win another significant trophy in the premier division.

Corlett was a strong-running, hard-tackling centre who became Pakuranga's first Auckland representative in 1980, playing four games for Bryan Craies' team, debuting in a Ranfurly Shield defence against Horowhenua.

Then next season he established himself as Auckland's first-choice centre, making 14 appearances but missing the game against the Springboks.

When John Hart took over as coach of Auckland in 1982, his preference at centre was a young bloke called Joe Stanley and his preferred second-five was Bernie McCahill; as a consequence, Corlett made only five appearances, one of them on the wing, an unfamiliar position for him.

He has great memories of his time in the Auckland jersey and particularly of an early South Island tour when he found himself alongside his childhood heroes Beegee Williams and Andy Haden.

"It was a pretty tough sort of introduction," he recalls. "The Auckland players didn't exactly go out of their way to make me feel welcome, the exception being Bryan Williams. I was very much the boy and it didn't help I played for Pakuranga. There were no clubmates of mine in the team and that made it difficult."

He soon won over his new team-mates, however, going on to play 23 games for Auckland.

Corlett received a tempting offer to play for Pukekohe, and a virtual guarantee of selection in the Counties Manukau representative team, and was also hunted by other unions, but remained loyal to Pakuranga.

In the 1984 and 1985 seasons, Corlett had the thrill of playing alongside Steve Pokere at Pakuranga. "He was magic," says Corlett. "When he was in the backline, Pakuranga played some great rugby. He seemed to be able to create so much space for me and give me a lot more time. It was a real education."

Corlett, who played under three coaches with Pakuranga, Dave Adams, Roger Whatman and Bob Telfer, has especially fond memories of the team's Jubilee Trophy triumph in 1989, when Suburbs was defeated at Eden Park.

"I'll never forget it," he says. "Suburbs was the favourite to win the trophy but we took it from them, despite them having the likes of Steve McDowell, Craig Dowd, Brett Iti and the Carter brothers (Mark and John) in the team.

"We travelled by bus to Eden Park. We knew we were in the public light there and didn't want to let ourselves down.

"When we got back on the bus and headed for the clubrooms, we expected a quiet welcome but we received a standing ovation from the supporters. There was a lot of champagne and it was a long party!"

Article added: Sunday 10 September 2023