It is all about positivity with Peanut

This article is taken from October's edition of Castleford Tigers' monthly magazine ROAR, which you can read for free by visiting castlefordtigers.com/roar.

Castleford Tigers have been doing it tough since the restart with injuries to key men in key positions and one of those is centre Pete Mata’utia, who received a knock in the Tigers’ second match in 72 hours in the middle of September. Two visits to the Totally Wicked Stadium saw Castleford play against Warrington Wolves late on Thursday night before backing it up against Hull FC in the Challenge Cup on Sunday afternoon.

Peanut discusses how he got injured but appreciates that in this sport, it is just one of the things that players must begrudgingly accept.

“My knee happened in the Hull Cup game when Oggy (Oliver Holmes) accidentally fell into me just after half time and my leg sort of collapsed, played through it but I was already working on a sore ankle from the Warrington game about two days before.

“It was a tough game to play in but it’s just what we do and any chance you get to play rugby you throw both hands up and try to make the most of it. Without running we think I’m about six weeks away, the process is a lot harder because I need to be off it for six weeks and then I can start my running. Fingers crossed I can get back and help the team out.”

In those two matches at St Helens, Pete was moved from the centres to joining Danny Richardson in the halves after Jake Trueman’s back injury continued to persist. It’s not an unknown position for him though, having played there on many occasions before including for Castleford in 2019.

“I’ve played at six or seven in years gone by, so I was comfortable with it and I played half of last year there as well, I do prefer playing in the centres where I had spent most of the pre-season working hard. But, like this whole year, things happen and change, and you have to just get on with it and do what you’ve got to do for the team.”

Playing at centre was clearly working for Peanut before lockdown happened in March, he was working very well with the rest of the Fords’ right-edge which was looking for settled and dangerous in attack. It was a shift from last season where he wore the #1 jersey and slotted into the halves, so why did he move to centre?

“I made the move because it was better for our team with Razor (Jordan Rankin) at the back and he had done a phenomenal job whilst he was here, it was pretty sad when we found out he was leaving but that was the main reason and it balanced our team a lot better. I’m familiar with the position, I enjoy it and I got time to form some combinations with Mikey (McMeeken), Danny Richardson and Choccy (Derrell Olpherts), it was good, and I was having fun. If I don’t get to come back this year I’m definitely looking forward to next year.”

It became clear how much Peanut was enjoying playing in the centres because he would be celebrating more for getting an assist to Derrell Olpherts rather than a four-pointer he got himself!

“100%! A lot of people look at stats and judge centres by how many tries they score but I would like to think that the more you can help your teammates around you play better you’re doing your job anyway. D’s better at scoring and finishing tries than me, I prefer to give it to him so he can do his mad flips in the corner.”

You might be wondering why this article keeps referring to Peter as ‘Peanut’? Most Cas fans know Pete as Peanut, especially on social media, but it turns out the man himself has no idea where it came from!

“I have no idea to be honest, it was in my early years at Newcastle my good friends Wes Naiqama, Kevin Naiqama and Junior Sa’u went out for a few beers and the next thing I know I wake up the next morning and them three were just calling me ‘Peanut’ and laughing every time they did. So, I don’t know how I got it but all I know is that it came from a night on the drinks, I’m still trying to find out now but those three won’t tell me."

During lockdown, the players were given their own personal fitness regimes and training programmes to follow to stay active and keep in match fitness. But nothing will have raised Peter’s heart rate more than the birth of his daughter London, a delivery which he performed at home!

“My daughter London arrived during lockdown, in my shower and it was one of the best experiences to be fair. I did s*** myself at one stage, I jumped behind my wife to try and grab London and once I saw he coming I just screamed and I’m pretty sure the whole neighbourhood heard me but it was one of the best experiences of my life. Watching your wife have your kids in hospital is good but getting to deliver your own kid is probably the pinnacle for me.

“I’ve got a great bunch of kids and I think London is the best kid I’ve got so far – the other two are just too crazy. Our club is very good with families and most of the older boys have kids and I can’t wait until the rules are changed so we can all get our kids back together again, playing around and get that family club feeling back.”

Castleford held their first behind closed doors match at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle on October 1st and the atmosphere was eerie, where we have become so accustomed to hearing the Fords’ faithful cheering Castleford on there was no-one. After playing several matches behind closed doors, Peter has noticed how much a boost the supporters are in the grounds.

“The fans can be the difference in games when you play at home or away as a player you can feel the difference, especially if you’re a younger kid and especially at The Jungle. I don’t think anyone but us boys love playing there, I tell my brothers all the time if they get chance to come over, they would love the experience of playing at The Jungle.

“We miss our fans a lot and they make the biggest difference in games, they make us push, they get us through but for the community itself, I think we need the fans back to help create a vibe back in Cas town. I’m not saying there isn’t one, but I definitely know when rugby is back in town, everyone in the local community is buzzing again. It’s confusing all these rules and we can’t have fans in, but fingers crossed we can get the Jungle Squad back in soon.”

Mata’utia is in the more mature years of his career now and wants to assist younger Tigers in getting into the First Team and pushing the current players who may be ahead of them, and it’s fair to say he gets a real buzz off it.

“For me, I love helping the younger kids who are coming through. We have got a great junior system here at Cas and we train with about 10 kids are aged between 16 and 18 and we are all pushing for them to get debuts.

“Players like Cain Robb & Bailey Hodgson are both phenomenal players them, I can’t wait to see them get their debuts, I think now for us it would be great for us to leave our positions in a better place for the next generation. Besides trying to win a trophy it would be great to leave this club in a better position than when I first came into it.”

Off the field Peter has embedded himself in the local charitable community, ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic he was regularly helping out the food bank and homeless shelter in Pontefract and it’s part of his mindset to help those less fortunate.

“The food bank is something I’ve been through too as a kid growing up which is important to me and the homeless shelter, I like helping out people and I love taking my kids there so they know how good they have it and that not everyone lives the same life. My kids can grow up being humble kids as well and help others out, it’s free to just be a nice person, it does not cost anything. I love seeing people smile, I love seeing happy people around town and I’m just doing my bit I guess.”

The positive mindset that Peanut puts forward to his children, his fellow teammates and everyone on social media is infectious, so much so he has plans to become a professional speaker too.

“I’ve always liked speaking, I’ve done it since I was a kid but with what I’ve been through and getting to where I am now I feel like I’ve done pretty well in life and if I can share my story as much as I can whether it's at schools, rugby teams or businesses, I feel like I have the blueprint to help somebody to get through what they’re going through and help them become the best version of themselves and do the best that they can.”

To finish this feature, we asked Peter Mata’utia one simple question: how does he have such a positive mindset?

“You go through a lot and once you understand that life is not linear and adversity is inevitable but difficulties or misfortunes don’t have to keep you from achieving your intended goals, I think you can take on life a lot easier.

“You are always going to be going through something now, you’re about to or have just come out of it and that’s just life and once you can understand life may not go the way you want it to most of the time, you can enjoy life a lot more. The ride is always going to be crazy, but you can have fun at the same time.”