A feather, a trophy and two police districts: the story of the Sergeant Matiu Ratana Memorial Trophy

Weeks after Matt’s death, two New Zealand police teams played for a trophy created in his memory. It’s still being played for. This is how it started, and why it matters.

On 14 November 2020, two police rugby teams ran out in New Zealand for the first match of its kind. One side came from Auckland City. The other came from Counties Manukau. At stake was the Sergeant Matiu Ratana Memorial Trophy.

The trophy is worth describing, because every detail was chosen. It carries a huia feather, a symbol with deep roots in Māori culture. It’s wrapped in blue and white ribbons, the colours of Auckland and of East Grinstead Rugby Club, where Matt was head coach. From the first match, it was meant to become an annual fixture.

Why those two districts?

They’re the two districts where Matt served. He was born in the Hawke’s Bay and went to school in Palmerston North. He moved to England in 1989 and spent almost 30 years policing in and around London. But in 2003, already an experienced officer, he joined New Zealand Police as part of its first British High Commission Wing, known as Wing 212. He worked in Auckland City and Counties Manukau until 2008, then returned to the UK.

So the trophy match isn’t random. Two districts he knew, two sets of colleagues who remembered him, one field. It closes a loop that began on the other side of the world.

A community that arrived fast

The response in New Zealand mirrored the response in the UK. When Matt died on 25th September 2020, New Zealand Police’s Commissioner, Andrew Coster, described policing as a family, and said Matt would always be part of the NZ Police whānau even though most of his career was spent in England. Whānau, the Māori word for extended family, was also the word Matt used to his teams to describe what a rugby club should feel like.

The pace of what followed is striking. The trophy match came on 14th November. The Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation launched six days later, on 20th November, with support from names including Maro Itoje, Gabby Logan, Piers Morgan and Nick Knowles. Within the first weekend of the Foundation’s fundraising challenge, donations passed £100,000 and more than 1,300 polos, shirts and hats had been given to supporters. And on 20 December, Matt was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year’s Unsung Hero, picked from 15 finalists.

The judges heard what players already knew. Matt would arrive early, run a meticulously planned session, then head off to a night shift with the police. His players described a coach who created a culture of believing in yourself.

The feather

The huia was a bird whose feathers were treasured in Māori culture, and which is now extinct. The same feather sits in the Foundation’s logo, set against all black. It’s a small thing, but it ties the trophy in New Zealand to everything we do in England and Wales: the same symbol, the same values, the same man.

Still being played for

The match is organised by Senior Constable Bryan Ward of New Zealand Police, a community officer in the Rodney District who knew Matt personally. Bryan has kept the fixture going year after year, and he’s been generous in sending the Foundation photos and history from the early matches.

In the UK, remembrance has taken more formal shapes. On 25th September 2024, the Police Memorial Trust unveiled a memorial to Matt, its sixtieth. The Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, spoke of Matt’s gift for engaging with people and the legacy he left.

But a trophy does something a memorial can’t. It gets used. Every year, two sets of players pull on shirts and run into each other with real intent, and somewhere on the touchline a younger officer asks who Matt was. A name that might otherwise fade stays in the changing room.