Steven Setephano loves his hog.
In the evening, when the Highlanders No 8 has run his last drill or lifted his last weight, he swings his burly 1.92m, 107kg frame on to his Milan 50cc scooter and toodles off around Logan Park Drive.
His team-mates, meanwhile, climb into their utes or latemodel Fords and head for the same exit. Setephano (23) got the scooter about a year ago when he and his then Waikato teammates decided, on a whim, to switch from four wheels to two.
‘‘Me and a few of the boys were complaining about the price of petrol,'' he told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
‘‘We went out and bought some scooters. And I decided it had to come down to Dunedin with me. ‘‘Everyone was a bit shocked at first to see a big boy like me on a scooter. I sort of weigh it down a bit and it only gets up to 60kmh.
‘‘But it's great to go from A to B. And I put $10 of fuel in and it lasts about a week and a-half.'' Setephano has copped a few quizzical looks and bit of goodnatured banter but he has no plans to ditch the nifty 50.
‘‘It's got a nice sort of fashionable look that I like about it. You don't see them every day. The boys down here were a bit shocked at first. I think they thought it belonged to some flash businessman or something.
‘‘They haven't given me too much grief. I'll have a few words with anyone who does.''
He joked that there were players in the squad who were contemplating joining him in the ranks of scooter ownership.
‘‘Fetu'u Vainikolo and Mike Delany are pretty keen to jump on board. There might be enough to start up a Highlanders bike gang.''
The Highlanders, and Otago, have high hopes for Setephano, who has transferred south after playing 19 games for Waikato over three seasons.
He clearly has the physical attributes to be a top-class loose forward, and he has untapped potential because his path to Super 14 rugby at the Chiefs was blocked by Steven Bates, Sione Lauaki and Liam Messam.
‘‘It got to the point in my rugby career where I thought, you know, I don't want to be just a development player,'' Setephano said.
‘‘The opportunity arose in Otago and I thought it was the right time to make the move. I've been given a huge opportunity with the Highlanders. With hard work and determination I hope to get there.
‘‘The guys in the loose forwards are pushing each other. There's competition for places and that's a good thing. The coaches want a team of fighters and all of us are pushing for a start.''
Educated first at St Stephens in Auckland, Setephano returned to his home town of Rotorua where he played for the Rotorua Boys First XV alongside Highlanders team-mate Delany, a few years after Highlanders forwards Craig Newby and Tom Donnelly had attended the school.
He was born in Wellington but has close ties to the Cook Islands, where his parents were born, and he tries to go to Rarotonga at least once a year to visit family and friends.
Setephano has settled in St Kilda with partner Holli Goddard, a fashion consultant and stylist who is hoping to launch her own label as part of Dunedin's burgeoning fashion industry.
Setephano has been enjoying the Dunedin summer. And he is particularly fond of the lower traffic flows around the city, though his scooter can find the gaps when it gets crowded.
