Lighter boys kicking rugby into touch

By GREG DIXON

Some Auckland schoolboys may be running scared of rugby, the game's administrators believe.

A 16 per cent slump in the number of Auckland secondary school rugby sides this season compared with 1999 is being blamed on the increasingly physical nature of the sport.

Only 165 teams took the field in the city this year, compared with 197 last season, according to Secondary Schools Rugby Union figures.

The drop in the Auckland region, which excludes Counties-Manukau and North Harbour, is against the general run of play, however.

Nationwide the number of students, both male and female, is up by nearly 2 per cent since last season, with more than 31,000 boys and girls now playing.

Accurate figures for the number of school players in Northland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty are not available because around 20 schools there have not passed their players numbers on to the Secondary Schools Rugby Union.

Rugby's fall in popularity in Auckland schools has come as a shock to the city's intercollege sports body, College Sport, which is the public face of the Auckland Secondary School Heads Association.

"If you look at the popularity of rugby as a sport in this country, when you start seeing numbers [in Auckland] decline you've got to wonder why," says College Sport's executive sports director, Rob Boston.

The probably reasons are that administrators have not got the weight grades right, and that the present rules of the game are making it "very unattractive" for younger people.

"It's high impact and this business of taking players out, going over the top as they call it, well that's probably okay if you're professional and training and you don't have to turn up to school or do your paper round on Monday.

Boston says the increasing dominance of Pacific Island players, who physically mature faster than some ethnic groups, might also be a reason for the schoolboy game being more physical.

"I think the Polynesian psyche is one of physical contact, that is a thing that they relish in the game, it is part of their game."

Rugby rules allowing big hits to be made outside the tackle-ball situation, which meant players bending to gather loose ball could be smashed, were starting to have a negative effect.

"I think ... that there are numbers of young players who are saying that there isn't anything in this game for us because the build that we have now precludes us from playing 1st XV rugby."

Secondary school rugby rules may have to be redrawn to include a new weight grading of 80kg. The top weight grading is at present 73kg, with an unrestricted open grade above that.