The Messengers of Greymouth are keeping up a family tradition, with a fourth generation member now pulling on the Blaketown rugby jersey. Although based in Christchurch, 20-year-old Toby O’Sullivan joined the Seagulls at the start of the season during his stay in Greymouth while working on the Kiwi Point rail tunnel with his employer, Downer.

Before moving to the city he played through the junior grades for Blaketown. O’Sullivan’s mother is the daughter of former New Zealand Rugby Union president Ron Messenger, a Blaketown and West Coast rugby stalwart. Before Toby, his uncle Alan Messenger played for both Blaketown and West Coast seniors in the late 1970s. Ron Messenger started with Blaketown after switching from the rival code in the 1950s, and went on to become firstly the manager of the Blaketown senior side, president of the West Coast Rugby Union and finally president of the New Zealand Rugby Union in 1976. Ron Messenger’s uncle, also named Ron, played in the senior team from 1928 but drowned in the Grey River in the 1930s. Each of the family had different reasons for playing, and Ron said they did not necessarily put on the black jersey just to keep family tradition.
“Toby was looking for a sport to play on the weekends, while I switched over because I had been playing rugby league and all my friends were playing rugby.”