It’s hard to believe watching him now charging down the field, side-stepping defenders, starting week in, week out for the Highlanders.
But just six months ago, Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens was lying in hospital, bolts drilled into his skull, with doctors telling him he was lucky to be walking, let alone ever playing rugby again.
“There was potential I could’ve been paralysed. I guess that’s the scary part,” the 23-year-old told 1News.
It was during Taranaki’s Ranfurly Shield win last year that Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens suffered a fractured neck. Incredibly, he didn’t know the full extent of the damage at the time and kept playing. He even scored a try.
“I literally remember getting off the ground thinking, ‘man, my neck just went heavy’, like my head was going to fall off.”
It wasn’t until after the game he was rushed to hospital, where scans revealed two fractures in his vertebrae. Emergency surgery followed, including bolts to keep his spine aligned and 50 kilograms of weight strapped to his head to stabilise it.
“The nurses said they didn’t know how I was walking.”
Now, after 187 days out of the game, Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens is back. And not just back, he's thriving.
“I almost had a few tears in my eyes running out again, everything I’d been through, it just felt worth it.”
He's started every game since his return. This afternoon, he’ll run out for his fourth straight start against Moana Pasifika.
Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens has previously trained with the All Blacks Sevens but a finger injury and then Covid-19 prevented him from earning an international cap. He was then a fringe player at the Blues, stuck behind a logjam of All Blacks in the backline. He knew he needed game time if he was ever going to push for higher honours.
“At the Blues, 9 to 15 were all All Blacks. I thought if I want to achieve my goals, I’ve got to get on the field," he said.
The Highlanders gave him that shot.
Coach Jamie Joseph is trying to rebuild a squad with limited resources and a shrinking player pool.
“From when I coached the Highlanders last time, what’s changed is there is Moana Pasifika, there’s the Drua, there are Australian teams grabbing a lot of our players, and players are leaving earlier to the likes of Japan," he said.
"What that does is put a squeeze on teams like the Highlanders because we're in the bottom of the South Island, we’ve got a low catchment area of players, and generally we’ve got to get younger players and develop them."
Joseph said attracting experienced players to Dunedin was harder than ever with many settled, with families, and not looking to move south.
The Highlanders may be facing big challenges in their rebuild but in Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, they’ve already landed one of their toughest fighters.
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