Growing up in the small town of PioPio, Cortez Ratima spent his childhood riding the King Country hills on his motorbike.<\/p>\n
But this was more than a hobby for Ratima.<\/p>\n
A teenaged Ratima was so passionate about motocross that he believed his sporting future was on two wheels, with rugby firmly in the backseat.<\/p>\n
But one wrong turn would set him on a different path entirely.<\/p>\n
“I would’ve been about 13, I had a motocross crash and broke my arm. At that point my old man told me to pick one or the other and just fully commit to it. So I’m glad I made the choice to come to rugby.”<\/p>\n
Ratima said he was “unsure how good I would have been” in the extreme sports world, but “it worked out all right in the end”.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old admits he spent far more time on the farm riding bikes than working.<\/p>\n
“I was mainly a gate opener for the old man,” he joked.<\/p>\n
Ratima was not short on inspiration in his region, with the province producing two of the greatest to wear the black jerseys in Dame Farah Palmer and Sir Colin Meads.<\/p>\n
“Even just having them come out of small towns – that’s something to aspire to, especially as a young kid growing up. Farah is pretty close in the wh\u0101nau, so I would often see her at the marae or something like that whenever there was an event on.”<\/p>\n
Despite rising to All Black status, Ratima said he is still treated as he always was in his hometown.<\/p>\n
“It’s quite a tight-knit community, so I know everyone down there and everyone’s pretty much the same. So it’s nice going back and just catching up with everyone.”<\/p>\n
Having made his debut in 2024, Ratima has now cemented himself as the primary deputy to incumbent halfback Cam Roigard, regarded among the world’s best players.<\/p>\n
However, Ratima is not content playing second string.<\/p>\n
“He’s obviously a quality player, but I want to be challenging to try and get a start, but whatever role I am playing within the team first, I’ll try and do that to the best of my abilities. But, obviously the goal is always to get to that starting position.”<\/p>\n
A halfback who thrives in open running conditions, Ratima has been loving the more expansive gameplan implemented under coach Dave Rennie.<\/p>\n
“It’s a hard-working style but it’s awesome, playing freely. The coaches have given the boys a lot of confidence to play what you see and be a bit more positive around it. We’ve created a lot of opportunity and an optimistic mindset. I think if we just tidy up a few of our key things, we can really put points on.”<\/p>\n
With Ireland awaiting the All Blacks in Auckland this weekend, Ratima said the side present the sternest test of the year so far.<\/p>\n
“We’ve obviously had quite a big rivalry with them over the last few years. So, it’ll be an exciting challenge and one we’re looking forward to.”<\/p>\n
Outside of rugby, Ratima takes on dad duty, balancing rugby and family life with his partner and two daughters at their Hamilton home.<\/p>\n
“It’s busy, but I love it. They’re my balance, getting away from footy. Just to come home even after a tough game and spend time with them, nothing else matters. They are a massive motivation for me. That’s a big part of my why and why I do what I do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up in the small town of PioPio, Cortez Ratima spent his childhood riding the King Country hills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-525788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}