A nostalgic Jan Machacek returned to his old haunts at Hancock Park this week and recalled the year he played for Pirates in 1995.
Machacek (39), a web designer, lives in Prague and played 56 tests for the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2009 as a loose forward.
When he played for Pirates, Gary Fulton was the premier coach, Jeff Walker the manager and Dave Clement the prop.
Russell Amos had just retired after playing 250 premier games for the club.
The memories kept flooding back when he tried his skills on the scrum machine and touched the old wooden ruck machine.
"The ruck machine always gave me sore shoulders," Machacek said.
Rugby was still an amateur game in 1995 and Machacek recalled helping Walker sell raffles at the Cock and Bull Hotel.
He also recalled watching the 1995 World Cup in South Africa on the big screen at the Pirates clubrooms.
"I still remember watching Jonah Lomu run over the English wing and Joel Stransky kicking the drop goal to win the game for South Africa in the final," Machacek said.
"Stransky played in a festival game for the Czech Republic three years later."
Machacek has played rugby around the world and was in a team in Manchester that was coached by future All Black coach John Mitchell. He also played for Clermont-Ferrand in France from 2000 to 2003.
He will be in New Zealand for three weeks during the World Cup and will return home to his wife, Jarca, a Czech Republic junior representative basketballer, and children Terezka (4) and Eliska (6) after the quarterfinals.
Former Otago lock Brendon Timmins will be the Zingari-Richmond premier coach next year and will be assisted by former All Black Arthur Stone, who filled the role this year.
Timmins, who has coached in Japan, played 74 games for Otago between 1992 and 1999 and 42 games for the Highlanders between 1996 and 2002.
