In 1961 he was selected for the crew of the Auckland Provincial Eight, which won at Lake Waihola, which resulted in him being chosen for the training squad of the New Zealand Eight at the 1962 Perth Empire Games. Rod was St George’s first ever NZ Representative and Athlete Number 82 to represent New Zealand in rowing.
He won the prestigious Interprovincial Eights Championship for the Auckland Eight in 1961 in four seat on Lake Waihola and 1963 at Wellington in bow seat.
He was awarded the NZ Rowing Legacy Medal with the following details – year selected 1962 , Commonwealth Games Perth , 5th place Men’s Coxless Four. He rowed in a coxless ( -4 ), the boat was a coxed ( 4 + ) boat which had a 1 inch pipe coming out of the stern and it had a 20 or 30 KG weight on it to make up for the weight of a cox. He rowed with Geoff Benge, Murray and Peter Watkinson in Perth.