Last October the principals of Auckland’s 1A schools unilaterally decided that matches involving their teams would no longer be broadcast or live-streamed. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
By Bruce Holloway
OPINION:
There’s a lingering uncertainty hovering over first XV rugby nationally as Auckland’s 1A competition this weekend enters its new – self-imposed – cone-of-silence era.
Last October, the principals of Auckland’s 1A schools unilaterally decided that matches involving their teams would no longer be broadcast or live-streamed, and no media interviews would be given by coaches or players. There was an unhealthy level of scrutiny and pressure on players, they argued.
Now that’s led to the season starting with Sky TV having upped the stakes by having no televised first XV matches scheduled anywhere in the country.
From Sky’s perspective, the absence of Auckland schools and their big support bases makes their programme less enticing to sponsors, and also a far more expensive operation, given the lack of close-to-home match venues.
In a statement, Sky TV told the Herald it respected the principals’ decision (though to be frank, there was never really a viable option to disrespect it).
“Due to this change the schoolboy rugby product is different and Sky is now evaluating options for televised schoolboy rugby. No decisions have yet been made, hence no matches are currently scheduled to appear on Sky.”
In time, an enduring absence from TV screens could have further flow-on effects on first XV sponsorship and even player recruitment for some schools.
Though to pin anyone down about this is very hard, with administrators and sponsors seemingly even less talkative than your average Auckland secondary school principal.
Sources say school rugby scholarships could be valued at between $45,000-$50,000 for a player from the Pacific Islands, when family airfares and costs were included. And to service the sponsorship that helps cover those costs, sponsors at least want to see some air time in front of Sky’s well established rugby audience.
Auckland Rugby Union had still not responded to written questions about its attitude to the media ban – and whether the 1A grand final would still be played on Eden Park No 1 – when this story went to press.
Nor had Bayleys Realty Group, a prominent long-time schoolboy shirt-front sponsor, or Miles Toyota, the name-right sponsor of Canterbury’s first XV competition, returned calls on their attitude.
But Luke Meurant, head of marketing at Land Rover NZ, which was naming-right sponsor of Sky’s First XV broadcasts, repeated his statements of last year in supporting the principals’ decisions.
“For us, this sponsorship is not about media reach, it is about celebrating our deep passion for rugby and being part of the rugby communities across the country,” Meurant said in a statement which basically paid homage to the positive values entrenched in the game.
Fantastic marketing buzzwords, yet that same statement somehow overlooked the fact we haven’t actually got a broadcast product going out to those same rugby communities to sponsor at the moment.
So these are strange times, as us wordsmiths email past each other. But one question remains: Is the price of respecting Auckland principals, in a sense now inevitably also a case of unintentionally disrespecting all those rugby communities elsewhere that miss out?
In the circumstances, a review of some past and current media interaction – or lack of it – between Auckland schools and media might help at least better inform the current situation.
While several schools have had tricky media relationships for some time – think of Dilworth with their historic student abuse issues or St Kentigern with their reputation-sullying poaching controversy of 2018 – Auckland Grammar were the first to front-foot the “no media” position.
In an email response to a media inquiry from this writer at this time last year about Grammar’s First XV, headmaster Tim O’Connor declined to supply any information.
It had nothing to do with the fact Grammar were struggling, following a 57-0 pre-season loss to Rotorua Boys’ High.
But his reasoning for a media ban was not quite as well-rehearsed back then.
“We prefer to retain the same schoolboy focus on all sports the school offers, rather than a focus on rugby,” O’Connor wrote, almost as if to suggest we might like to take a peek at the hockey XI or the squash team.
If that sounded a bit like a policy in search of a reason, it finally found one after Tangaroa College upset Grammar for the First time in their history, in a match dubbed “Otara’s Matariki Miracle” at the end of June 2022.
In the wake of media reports of that match, rugby sources advised that emails fair zipped around the schools. And one by one, even the most chatty of team coaches began declining to comment – even if they weren’t quite sure why they were declining.
There’s a broad educational convention that schools don’t publicly criticise other schools, and to be fair, within the school fifedoms, most also do toe the line over the cone of silence.
But off the record, a handful of rugby personnel are rolling their eyes and wondering why, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, can’t these fully grown principals figure out a more nuanced media policy, rather than risk turning off sponsors and the wider community with their scorched earth.
There have also been fascinating contortions as schools have fallen into line with the no-media edict.
For instance, last October De La Salle principal Myles Hogarty defended the principals’ new position by observing players may not have the requisite mechanisms to cope with unwanted and unregulated media attention.
“Too often we have seen the negative impacts of unnecessary hype,” he said. “Many of our students already feel enormous pressure when they take the field.
“It is our job as principals to create safer environments for all of our students and we believe this course of action is entirely appropriate given what appears to be a greater emphasis than ever on commercialising school sports and the potential exploitation of those who choose to play it.”
Hogarty was obviously a very late convert to this position. Because in this writer’s only in-person media interview with first XV players in 2022, it was Hogarty himself who facilitated the occasion with three of his De La Salle players (Eddie Ieremia, Valentino Taito and Peni Otukolo) in mid-June on the school’s premises.
Hogarty was so at ease with the process – and the potential hype – that he didn’t even bother to sit in or nominate another teacher to do so, effectively leaving this media attention to be completely “unregulated”.
De La Salle’s school motto is “Bonum Certamen Certa” (from St Paul’s First letter to Timothy - 1 Tim 6:12) or “Fight the good fight” for those who don’t do Latin. Maybe they just gave this one up without a fight.
In South Auckland, Tangaroa College is doing its own delicate dance at the interface of media, sport and sponsorship.
The college’s first XV are back from an April pre-season tour to Melbourne, where they enjoyed wins over Xavier College and Iron Armour Academy (an U20 rugby academy).
But scratch the surface and this tour was about much more than rugby. For many players it was the experience of a lifetime, with 17 of them having never previously been overseas.
That’s brilliant for a low-decile part of the city and a real good news story, given this tour was only made possible by community sponsorship from the likes of Drury’s Luijten Landscaping (Fantastic landscaping solutions), East Tamaki’s Cabjaks (Why wait months for your dream kitchen?) and Vakalahi Construction (No job too small!).
If only the news somehow got out. But you wouldn’t want the media to get hold of that, would you?
Incidentally, a compelling documentary about the Tangaroa First XV, The Blue Wall, has been named as a finalist in the Voyager Media Awards on May 27.
Here’s hoping that it wins, if only so Tangaroa has to think hard about whether, at a media bash, it would be hypocritical to discuss past seasons while refusing to talk about the current one.
This year Tangaroa are being coached by Siliva Ahio (backs) and Simon Hafoka (forwards).
Elsewhere St Paul’s College have been promoted to the 1A competition after nearly 20 years’ absence, having beaten Aorere College 53-5 on April 29.
Followers of the game may have been curious to know to how it was that a tiny Catholic school in Ponsonby (roll 393 as of February) was able to so comprehensively hammer a 1500-strong co-educational college in Papatoetoe – and the wider historical context of this engaging emergence.
From a media perspective, no player need have been interviewed, photographed or name-dropped. Who knows, it might just have been a reflection on the Catholic brotherhood’s growing impression on Auckland rugby, with five schools now sitting among Auckland’s top 10, and what that says about the changing power base of the game.
But there you go. Coach Fatusone Fatu-Ropati was emailed, with a handful of questions, to which there was the expected nil response.
Incidentally St Paul’s College’s motto is “Confortare Esto Vir” (also from St Paul’s first letter to Timothy) or “Take courage, be a man”, for those who don’t do Latin or catholicism. Readers can make up their own minds on whether there is any incongruity here.
Meanwhile King’s College and Auckland Grammar have returned from tours down south.
Grammar recorded worthy wins over Otago Boys’ High (26-20) and Christchurch Boys’ High (15-10) but were beaten 18-17 by Southland Boys’ High, through a late 40m penalty.
These were tough, challenging matches. And against schools with no media hang-ups or neuroses at all.
Indeed, a Southland Times report of the Southland-Grammar match was granular enough to include the detail that one player had been treated for cancer at the end of last year and was now in remission.
Unhealthy scrutiny? Southland Boys’ coach Peter Skelt said he was “very relaxed” about media coverage of his team’s efforts.
He didn’t know what pressure Auckland schools may feel under, so wouldn’t comment on their media ban and its implications.
But to Skelt, schoolboy rugby pressure was travelling seven hours to play a game in Christchurch, rather than chatting to a curious journalist.
Of Grammar, he said: “They are a team that uses the ball very well. They looked to stretch us out wide and had a very well-drilled forward pack.”
On Tuesday New Plymouth Boys’ High beat Grammar 27-24.
Of King’s College, who Southland beat 44-17, Skelt offered this assessment: “King’s are a team that likes to keep the ball in hand and build phases and apply pressure that way.
“They are a young team that is rebuilding and very well coached.”
Because nobody was harmed in the making of these simple but informative media comments, it suggests there might just be middle ground out there somewhere if mature minds were applied to the issue beyond the Auckland schools’ army-command mode of operation.
On their southern trek, King’s lost 22-24 to Otago Boys’ High, who were then presented with the Sir Keith Park Cup. Sir Keith was the RAF Fighter Command leader in the Battle of Britain and had attended both schools as a boy. That would have been worth publicising.
King’s also lost narrowly to Christchurch Boys’ High, 33-36.
Meanwhile during pre-season St Kentigern – who just missed the 1A top four by one point last year – won the Presbyterian Schools Quadrangular event at St Andrews in Christchurch. They beat Lindisfarne 61-12 and Scots College 44-26.
We only know this stuff because it escaped through the cracks. Who knows, in the cone-of-silence era they’re probably devastated word got out. But diary it now: The Quad will be held at St Kentigern in 2024.
And now in Auckland first XV we enter a new era of cat-and-mouse, school v media. Perhaps even one where media risks becoming its own story.
But it’s going to be an awful lot of fun. So should the rugby prove less than riveting on the sideline, as a huge state school takes on a tiny Catholic school at Kelston Boys’ High on Saturday afternoon, 2.30pm, keep an eye out for a cranky-looking bloke with dark glasses, an Inspector Gadget overcoat, an ear to the ground and a dog-eared notepad.
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Play started last Saturday in North Harbour competition, with defending champions and Blues region secondary schools winners Westlake Boys High beating Massey High 42-10.
Westlake had a good pre-season, in which they beat Mt Albert Grammar, and even went close to upsetting national champs Hamilton Boys’ High, leading 26-14 with 15 to go, before some rookie errors saw them lose 29-26.
They’ve lost a huge chunk of their forwards from last year - particularly Tristyn Cook and Jack Lee - but are looking good in the backline, which is pretty much the same as last year.
“We’re a work in progress,” said Westlake director of rugby, Hugh McGahan, still happy to talk to media.
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In North Island Super 8 rugby the first two rounds are spread out over several playing days, starting with the first game on May 20. The third round is the first full round on June 10.
Saturday’s 1A draw (home team first, all 2.30pm): St Kentigern v Liston College; Kelston v St Paul’s; King’s College v Sacred Heart (Fitzpatrick-Kirkpatrick Cup); Dilworth v Mt Albert Grammar; St Peter’s v Tangaroa College; Auckland Grammar v De La Salle.
North Harbour 1st XV, Section A (home team first, all 12 noon): Whangarei Boys v Rosmini; Takapuna Grammar v Manurewa; Massey High v Orewa; Westlake Boys v Rangitoto.
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