Warren Gamble: When soccer players were cool at school

The victorious Rosmini College soccer team of 1980.

Opinion

One for sports trivia fans: Who won the premier New Zealand secondary schools soccer tournament in 1980?

You need clues? A Catholic boys school from Auckland's North Shore.

Still no idea? Okay, it was Rosmini College.

When you tell people that, as I've done over the years, the next question is usually always: Who?

Rosmini is a medium-sized school off a quiet street in residential Takapuna, which has gone about its business solidly and unspectacularly. However, New Zealand cricketer and now cricket chief Martin Snedden is a former Rosminian, as is former All Black Blair Larsen.

But for one year Rosmini had another heroic claim and it came from the unlikeliest source at a school where rugby was king, as it was throughout New Zealand in 1980. Soccer players were branded "girls", "sissies" or "poofters" then; the round-ball game was for those who could not hack rugby.

But in 1980 Rosmini's first soccer eleven did something unexpected. They won the Auckland secondary schools B-grade competition. It caused enough of a ripple for the team of converted rugby players, sons of Dutch and English immigrants, to get a late invitation to the top tournament where the Auckland Grammar, Kelston and Palmerston North boys played.

For some reason we were not daunted. We were under no pressure and we had our own stars. Up front Terry Gore, whose Evertonian father Bob played for a Chatham Cup-winning North Shore team in the 1960s, was a natural goalscorer who had also made his national league debut with North Shore.

Alongside him Andy Collis had the speed to stretch any defence, in the midfield Terry Howard and Peter Buchanan were classy playmakers, while captain Paul Collins marshalled the defence.

Most of us were like the school: solid, unspectacular, but committed to the team.

Off the pitch we had teacher Gerry McKay, a Celtic fan brought up in Glasgow, more motivator than coach, who cajoled us to greater heights. Curiously, when he shouted from the sidelines you could understand him much better than in his history lectures.

We were also fit, thanks to teacher Sam Johnson.

We were not afraid of anyone, even the tournament favourites Rongotai College, who played in the yellow of Brazil, wanted to emulate their samba-style and had as their star a 17-year-old named Wynton Rufer. He had just recovered from a broken ankle but still came north with a national league season behind him, a bagful of tricks and confidence, and a glittering career just ahead.

In the warm-ups you could see him juggling a ball for what seemed like hours. His tracksuit had a hand-sewn acronym for the names of his football idols Pele, Gordon Banks, Johan Cruyff, and Dave Thomas (QPR and England).

I can remember seeing 'Pele' emblazoned on his top and thinking "Who does he think he is?" (Only the Oceania player of the century as it turns out.)

In his first game at the Waitakere College tournament, Rufer scored four goals; in the second he came off the bench to score a late winner - a goal he still ranks as one of his most memorable because he beat his dodgy ankle, fatigue, and taunts from Wellington rivals Tawa College on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Rosmini went unnoticed through our group even though we beat A sides such as Takapuna Grammar - who had a frighteningly fit Simon Poelman, the future New Zealand decathlete, up front.

In the quarter-finals we put paid to Tawa. But the despondent Tawa players at least had the consolation of jeering Rufer on the next field when he missed a penalty in Rongotai's quarter-final shoot-out against Kelston.

Rongotai still won, but Rufer was lucky to stay in the tournament after dropping his shorts at the Tawa boys. His soon-to-be New Zealand coach John Adshead watched disapprovingly.

On to the semi, Rosmini versus Rongotai, in the mud which helped stifle their Brazilian airs.

But at halftime, down 1-0, exhausted and with our goalkeeper off injured, the fairytale seemed over. Tony Gore, Terry's brother, a stylish left-footed midfielder, recalls coming out for the second half and hearing Rufer's strike partner tell his team: "Come on guys, give it a good 10 minutes and then take it easy."

"It really gave me a lift," says Tony, "because I thought, 'These guys are going to give up in 10 minutes so we may as well keep going for half an hour and see what happens'. I told the team that they are going to chuck it in soon and we started playing and taking them on."

It was 1-1 at fulltime, and in an airless, tense shoot-out we stayed coolest, slotting all five penalties. Rufer scored his, but our stand-in keeper, Craig Younger, palmed one away and we were in the final. Rufer, soon to be on the epic road to the 1982 World Cup in Spain with the All Whites, sportingly came in to congratulate us.

Our final opponents were also dark horses, from the other end of the country, Otago Boys High School. It was no anti-climax. At 2-1 down late in the second half player of the tournament Terry Gore - whose national league career would be rudely interrupted by a broken leg playing for North Shore two days later - stepped up. He volleyed an equaliser, 2-2. With time almost up, his brother Tony curled over a corner and Terry rose, twisted and flicked the ball on. "I could just see it going over his [the Otago keeper's] fingers and I thought, 'Oh, that's in'."

On the sidelines our 1st XV - the 1st XV! - cheered. Reflecting this week, some reckon it was like Greece winning last year's European championships. But they didn't have to play Brazil.

For us it is forever our own small niche in New Zealand sporting folklore - the week we beat the country's greatest player. More than that, though, for a brief time at the next school assembly soccer players were cool.