• James Hinchco runs out to his 200th game for North Shore Rugby Club.
  • James with daughter Halle and wife Amy.
  • One of the boys: Frano Botica, Ben Stewart, Wiremu Walker, Luke Hamilton, James Hinchco, Josh Blucher, Leigh Thompson.
  • The park renamed in James's honour for the quarterfinal cup clash against Takapuna.

Hinchco's Two Hundy

Club rugby attracts a fiercely loyal breed of people and none more so than a local man who joined North Shore Rugby Club as a five year-old and who, in early July, took to the field for his 200th first team game. James Hinchco marked his milestone match for the Prems on Saturday 7th July for a quarter-final cup tie against old foes Takapuna, to a suitable hero’s welcome. 

Local lad James was in his first year at Vauxhall Primary School when he took up the game he loves, with his dad Mike as his junior coach. He stayed on the Shore throughout his childhood and adolescence, moving through Belmont Intermediate, Takapuna Grammar School and Massey University. 

His secondary school rugby days for TGS 1st XV have come full circle; he is now the coach of the current team. And he is evidently coaching at TGS to great effect. When we meet, the first team is top of the table for the Harbour region, and he’s proud to report that four of the players are with the Blues’ Under 18s, and one is with the Under 17s. He must be doing a good job? But James doesn’t want any credit. “You know what makes a good coach?” He asks before answering his own question with a smile. “A good team.” 

Provincial rugby has been a big part of James’s life, as well as playing overseas; he played for Taranaki for a year, spent three years with Harbour, and had a spell playing over in Ireland. But he came home to the club he loves. “It’s a special place,” he says. “At North Shore we’re all the same - no one gets put on a pedestal. 

“The likes of Buck Shelford and Frano Botica were my biggest idols growing up, and they’ve ended up being my coaches and club mates! On Saturday, there’s Frano, for example, picking up the flags. It’s such a great club. And I just came back to help out - but that was eight or nine years ago!” 

James actually decided to hang up his boots a couple of seasons back, but fate had other ideas. “I actually retired from the Prems two years ago,” he explains. “I’d played over 190 games and thought that was about it for me. This season they’d got a couple of strong hookers but as it happened they got injured and so I got my call up!”

And being reinstated - he thanks club coach Grant Simpkins - gave him the opportunity to experience a hero’s welcome in his milestone match against Takapuna.  Hundreds of spectators turned out on a crisp winter’s afternoon to witness ‘Hincho’s Two Hundy’ and to see Shore claim victory over Takapuna, 35 - 16. Friends, family and team mates from throughout the years gathered in the club rooms after the game for presentations, speeches and several pints.

“It was great afterwards to see so many guys I’ve played with, some of them right from the start. It was such a special night. It’s safe to say I was pretty dull on Sunday.” 

His work as a commercial account manager for a building firm keeps him busy away from the rugby field, as do his two daughters, Halle, two, and three month-old Solène. The girls are one of the reasons he vows to take a break from the game over the coming year. “The girls are so young and it’s important that I spend lots of time with them and enjoy them being this age. 

“I’ll try and get on the field for the semis (against Northcote), and hopefully the final, then that’ll be that. I’ve told my wife Amy that a few times, but I mean it this time!”

He admits that he’s arrived at training early in order to give his back a ‘good stretch’ before getting stuck in. It’s a game that takes a big toll on the body, he confirms, and mentions how he ‘won’t miss being sore’. In a throw away comment at the end of our conversation, he adds: “Yeah, I broke my neck once - in 2003 against Marists. That was pretty bad. They never thought I’d play again. So I guess, really, this has all been a bit of a bonus - this whole lot!” Humble Hinchco, hometown hero.