Into the twilight

A local boy practises his kicking at the Te Papapa Onehunga Rugby Club grounds in Onehunga. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

It was the kids who got them started and it could yet be the kids who finish them off. Young players are the future of every sports club in the country, but they're causing some nasty headaches for rugby clubs like Te Papapa.

Officially known as Te Papapa-Onehunga Rugby Football and Sports Club Inc, it's just one of many finding that the country's number one sport doesn't pull in the kids like it used to. But then if many are struggling to identify with their local Super 14 team, what chance do the clubs have? They used to be the places where near-neighbours met, mates were made, and everyone could let off a bit of steam as they bonded. Nowadays not so much.

At some time, and most point to the 80s, those connections began to splutter. An assortment of possible reasons have been offered - white-flight, residual feelings over the Springbok tour, cotton-wool kids, the rise of the Warriors, lazy parents, and population change - but the situation was allowed to worsen until Auckland's oldest club, Grafton, died, largely unlamented, last October.

Several more, Te Papapa included, could be about to follow. The odd thing is that there are probably more people living near this club than ever before and its premier team is going rather well. Yet it's dicing with death after being amalgamated with another club, Mt Wellington, which is called a neighbour but lies at least one connecting bus ride away. That kind of distance stretches anyone's concept of local. So, what is happening here?

First though, the history. Te Papapa club is a child of World War II, sitting among the state homes that now form Oranga, a micro-suburb squeezed between Onehunga and Penrose. Returning soldiers needed somewhere to live and as part of the nationwide effort to do right by our veterans, about 500 homes were built on farmland bordering Te Papapa school.

New homes meant new families, which in turn meant the arrival of kids needing something to do. How about getting them into sport? The local Labour Party got involved, some influential parents were recruited, and a sense of community spirit and willpower fell in behind. This was how things were done, it was more about reaching for your own boot-straps. Before they'd even decided on what they were going to play, these non-existent club members were collecting start-up money from each other via weekly card evenings and persuading local businessmen to back a