Rotorua Boys' High School celebrate following their win in the National 1st XV Championship final. Photo / Getty
Rotorua Boys' High School celebrate following their win in the National 1st XV Championship final. Photo / Getty
Rotorua Boys' High School circumvented the rules on their way to a national rugby title this year. There's a shorter 'c' I could have used there, but for the sake of the children, I won't.
Any waffle you might hear out of that school about "vague eligibility rules" and "technicalities" is pure dissembling.
The rules are there for everybody to see on the New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council's website.
To say they were caught unaware is the equivalent of classic sports doping excuse: "I had no idea what I was taking was illegal." The onus has to be on the school to make sure they're in the right. If you're unsure, check.
As it turns out, RBHS principal Chris Grinter would have been far better to use the Lance Armstrong defence: "So what, everybody's doing it!" - would be closer to the sad truth.
I believe that some schools - particularly private schools and traditional state boys schools - have become so obsessed by the results of their rugby teams, that they're prepared to trample all over educational ideals and ethics to get themselves a slot on Sky TV.
It is appalling. We're teaching these kids that looking for loopholes, bending the rules and then breaking them is okay; that winning is the end that justifies the means.
Of course the pupils are going to go along for the ride. Their minds are not fully formed. In the dreamworld they occupy, they believe the coaches and misguided teachers who tell them that glory on the sports field is a precursor to success in other parts of their lives.
They don't realise that in the world outside the Latin inscriptions on the school gate it means sod all, except to the tiny percentage who are so gifted they will forge a career in professional sport.
Do not misinterpret this: sport is a vital part of a child's development. It is a fantastic way of developing confidence and camaraderie. Its good far, far outweighs its ill. Winning instils confidence - trying to win (fairly) should be a given. But when it becomes an obsession, as 1st XV rugby has become at too many institutions, and that obsession is driven by the very people who should be teaching these kids perspective, then we have created a monster.
Big schools who poach the best talent away from rural areas are damaging grassroots rugby. Photo / Brett Phibbs.
(Incidentally, I asked Sky TV to comment on whether they were worried that the integrity of the schoolboy tournaments they were broadcasting were being destroyed. They offered a "no comment". They are aware, I'm sure, that on one level it is the presence of their outside broadcast trucks that has added an amphetamine-like rush to the schoolboy rugby obsession.)
Rotorua BHS are not alone in being obsessed by the cachet a winning rugby team gives them, that much should also be made clear. What stories like these do is bring all sorts of complaints out of the woodwork. There's the Auckland private school that has a terrible junior rugby programme, but somehow have a fantastic 1st XV every year. There's the Wellington private school that had zero rugby pedigree until recently and now it can't stop winning. There's the school that had nine Year 14 students in their 1st XV. Nine! School should only go to Year 13.
The pursuit of outside talent, whether it is through scholarships, inducements or whatever, has a very real effect on the communities from where the big and wealthy schools pillage.
Keen followers of grassroots rugby might remember Steve Hale, a proud Te Aroha resident and co-club captain of Cobras. On reading the story about Rotorua BHS, he messaged me the following:
"This has been going on for 20 years and it stinks. Funny how little old Te Aroha College was once able to beat St Paul's Collegiate Hamilton, St Peter's Cambridge and get within nine points of Hamilton Boys' High School. There wouldn't be a chance of TAC getting within 100 points of the Big Three now.
"At the big schools, the old school-tie brigade can't handle not having a crack 1st XV. It's vital for their prospectus, their marketing and sponsorship. It's driving a wedge between grassroots rugby and the upper echelon. Rugby will become a private school sport in New Zealand if we're not careful. You only have to take one top athlete per year away from a rural school to completely decimate that school's sporting programme.
"This issue really pisses me off. About 30 Te Aroha kids go to school in Hamilton now, though not all for sport. If everyone went to the schools closest to them, the communities would be far better off."
Although that's not totally realistic for the simple fact that social mobility is an important part of a democratic function, Hale's concerns should resonate, particularly with New Zealand Rugby (NZR). The national body is looking at the Rotorua BHS fiasco, but here's my prediction: they won't look too closely.
Like it or not, these schools that attract outside talent are providing, in a roundabout way, a service for NZR. League scouts are extremely active once students get to about Year 11 onwards. The Ioane boys, Rieko and Akira, I'm told, had the option of signing with an NRL club when they were 15. Both stayed with rugby but many others won't. Schools that offer full scholarships to promising rugby players are effectively running interference and anything that can keep league at bay is appreciated by the powers that be.
It's not a good enough reason, however, to keep turning a blind eye to school sports shenanigans. It is, as Hale and many others would point out, getting out of control.
If the New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council is as toothless as many believe, and if NZR isn't going to crack down on those who break the rules, then Sport NZ - yes, the Government - must intervene.
New Zealand rugby has stayed at the top in large part because of its egalitarian appeal. If, as Hale says, it suddenly becomes a sport of the haves, then this country's biggest advantage is gone. Rugby's rich will have eaten itself.
GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF KIWI...
As we bask in the glory of Lydia Ko's breakthrough major win, it is time to reflect on the man who started it all. Here's Bob Charles winning The Open Championship (British Open for non-golf snobs) at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 1963. Note the wonderfully acid remark from the commentator when American Phil Rodgers drops his cap over the hole on the 18th.
Fellow sports lovers, when you wake on Monday morning, flick on the flatscreen and tune into NFL RedZone. This is how to cover a league that spans a few timezones. The action zips from venue to venue across the NFL, never missing a touchdown or a point of interest. It must be phenomenally expensive to broadcast but for the viewer it's gold. Whatever the chief producer gets paid for that show, it's not enough.
Just through sheer lack of interest. A team could possibly win this tournament this year and nobody would know, although I'm guessing they're pretty fired up in Nelson and Blenheim at the moment. It's a shame really as I watched Auckland and Otago in its entirety on Sunday and it actually was a rollicking bit of good fun.
Every week I will make one $10 bet. The goal is to get to December 31 with more money than I would have had if I had put it in the bank.
Last week: A confidence restoring $17.50 collect on the Kvitova-Siegemund match at the US Open to last less than 18.5 games. Now just $7.10 in arrears before this week's spend.
This week: I'm punting $2.05 on Manchester United to beat PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League. This looks generous odds on a team coming into form and guess what... I really don't care if I lose this bet. (Editor's note - Opps) Total spent: $120 Total collected: $102.90
MAILBAG
It seems I'm not the only one out there who thinks Sky TV's league panel has been far too unquestioning of Simon Mannering's role as captain.
It's good to see that someone in the New Zealand media is prepared to hold the Warriors accountable and to question whether they might look to operate in a different way (including at least considering the idea of appointing another captain). The sycophantic, almost unquestioning support offered by NZ television pundits, who are in the privileged position of commentating on the Warriors, is embarrassing (and would not happen in any other country). Their obstinate refusal to ask meaningful questions about the team and its management seems to me symptomatic of all that has bedevilled the Warriors for 20 years.
Sadly, people who are in a position to make a difference don't seem prepared to question the team and hold it accountable. Too often, poor performances are excused as the result of inexperience, a lack of combinations, injuries, or simple bad luck. The attributes of some of the very best Australian sides - unflagging effort, mental strength, and a winning mentality - are all patently missing from the team, brushed under the table, as though they are unimportant or irrelevant.
Part of being a fan, part of wanting something better, is to hold those in whom you invest your time and passion, accountable. Too few in the NZ media are doing that when it comes to the Warriors. Maybe, just maybe, if they were to ask the hard questions, the Warriors organisation might look at itself a little more closely and offer some hard answers.
A good read thanks. My particular interest centres on the Warriors and your piece touches on a concern I've had for some time. I too admire Mannering as a player; he invariably puts in big time and sets a great example regarding consistent application to the job in hand. However, as you say, that doesn't necessarily qualify him to lead the team. In fact, his deposing of Steve Price (not his doing of course) was poorly handled - like so many things over the last 20+ years. Price needed to be replaced in the right way and at the right time, which didn't happen.
One issue I do take up with you is your writing "some of the finest minds in the league community - Awen Guttenbeil, Brian McClennan and Richie Barnett". Fine minds - hello? Sure, each of these guys has a background in the game. However I don't rate any of them or their opinions. I've followed the game all my life (50-plus years, initially in Australia where I grew up as a rabid Souths supporter) and see no one on Sky who's even remotely qualified to comment, not to mention commentate. It's not easy I know, and we have to have someone, but please don't accord them accolades they don't deserve.
The Warriors captaincy remains an issue that warrants addressing, and quickly, as does the seeming non-understanding of professionalism. I'm hopeful that Jim Doyle will influence this, but it's time he started to do so. We've a couple of good buys coming across for next season, however they both need appropriate management, especially Issac Luke, and a team culture that dictates the terms.
Twenty years is long enough to build a strong, solidly performing side. That's never a guarantee of a premiership, but demands credibility - something the Warriors still lack in spades, unfortunately.
Shane Compton
Write to me at dylan.cleaver@nzherald.co.nz. Correspondence may be edited for errors and abridged.
