Photography: Gina Fabish
From the moment she stepped on a rugby field at four years old, Kate Thomson knew she had found the sport for her. Even the cold Hawke’s Bay mornings running around barefoot on icy grass didn’t deter her. But since becoming an operations manager on a dairy farm in Taranaki, rugby is so much more than a passion. It is an essential part of her mental wellbeing in a job that can be very isolating.
“I’ve lived on farms where you don’t see people for weeks at a time,” the 29-year-old tells.
“You tend to talk to your dog or the cows. It is extremely lonely. Farming is one of the worst places for mental health because you’re so segregated from everything.”
It isn’t easy making time for a personal life, but Kate says she would take a thousand early mornings before giving rugby up.
Balancing farm life and rugby
She explains, “I get up at 4.30 in the morning, milk the cows, then go straight from locking up the cows to warm up on game day. Then I leave straight after the match – I’ll often still be in my playing kit for the next milking. You stretch yourself thin.”
While Kate would happily give everything she has to the game, that doesn’t mean rugby has always been so kind in return. She has a long list of injuries she has suffered, including dislocating almost all the fingers on one hand, breaking another so badly it required two surgeries and a compressed fracture in her knee that caused part of the bone to die as it went undiagnosed for three weeks.
While they are all serious injuries, Kate, who now calls Hāwera home, says there is one that haunts her mum Racheal to this day.
The injury that still haunts her mum
“One time, I got knocked out. I got a knee right to the head and I couldn’t see – everything was highlighter yellow. I couldn’t see Mum, but I could hear her voice saying, ‘I’m coming!’ So I was yelling out for her, ‘Mum, I can’t see anything!’ Mum hates me playing, but I’ve done it all my life.”
Despite her wishes, Racheal, 53, is Kate’s biggest supporter. During the rugby season, she makes the eight-hour round trip from Dannevirke to New Plymouth to watch almost all of her girl’s games for Southern Rugby Club.
A bond beyond rugby
But the effort means the world to Kate, who tears up as she talks about how much her mother means to her.
“It’s weird when she’s not there,” she admits.
“I get emotional when I don’t see my mum before I run out on the field. I’m 29 and I still cry because I can’t see my mum on the sideline!”
A story captured on film
Kate and Racheal both star in the new documentary No Tears on the Field, which follows two rival Taranaki club teams on their journey to the finals. When filmmaker Lisa Burd was looking for subjects for her latest project, it was no surprise that Kate caught her eye while watching from the sidelines.
Kate recalls, “She asked if it was one of my teams, and I swore and said, ‘No! I play for Southern!’ She kept asking if she could come and film me and ask me about rugby. It’s a huge passion of mine, so I find it very easy to talk about. I don’t really ever shut up.”
The meaning behind the title
Kate’s proudest achievement from the documentary is inspiring its title, which comes from her mother’s lifelong advice.
Kate remembers, “When Mum was our team manager, she would pull you off the field and then you could cry, but you do not cry on the field. It gets me choked up that my mum has named this documentary.”
Chasing 100 caps
Though she knows she will eventually have to retire, Kate is adamant it will not happen before she reaches 100 caps. She has played 56 games for Southern and, if she avoids any further serious injuries, should reach the momentous milestone in three years.
Kate used to be so single-minded about the goal that she declared she wouldn’t have children until it happened. While she has relaxed her position on this, she does have one condition.
She tells, “I want kids now, but there are ways of fitting them outside of rugby season.”
No Tears on the Field is in cinemas Thursday, March 19.
