Yet young Tongan farm worker Lave Masila, 23, won the junior judging competition at last month’s New Zealand Agricultural Show in Christchurch, a feat made more remarkable given English is his second language.
As well as having to place four rams and four ewes in his order of preference, Mr Masila also had to explain to the judges his reasoning behind the placings.
Originally, Mr Masila came to New Zealand for a visit. He met Southdown breeder Chris Medlicott, who is also heavily involved in rugby in the district, through a friend.
"We just took a real liking to him, he’s like part of our family," Mr Medlicott said.
Mr Masila is now on a working visa at the Medlicott family’s property Clifton Downs, near Waimate. He had a pet pig at home in Tonga, which would follow him to school, but had previously never encountered sheep.
But his late father told him to work hard, watch and learn, advice which he had heeded, and he had proven to be a natural talent working with sheep.
Typically humble, Mr Masila said it was the people around him that had made it easier for him to settle into farming life. "They share what they know and I learn from them," he said.
Asked what he found hardest on the farm, Mr Masila said nothing was hard as long as he was having fun.
He found a love for sheep from the first day on the farm and it was his first time in the junior judging competition, although he had previously watched it. While not nervous about the actual judging, particularly in front of a crowd, it was the speaking that he was worried he might muck up, he said.
His mentor, Mr Medlicott, who was watching, noticed other competitors immediately picked up their clipboards and started writing while his charge immediately went to handle the sheep.
While confident Mr Masila would cope with the Dorset Down judging, he had never taught him anything about wool so wondered how he would fare with a wool breed. But he was fine with the Romneys.
Mr Masila’s prize was a trip to any show in Australia and, while they had wondered about the Bendigo show, Mr Medlicott rued that it coincided with the local rugby competition semifinal.
Mr Masila did not play rugby in Tonga but he had picked it up in Waimate, starting with the Senior Bs and playing about seven games for the senior side. Eventually he hoped to have his own Southdown sheep stud.
