Rugby: Read turned back on 'big' school

Kieran Read says he and his school team mates never thought about playing professionally. Photo / Getty Images

For All Black Kieran Read, widely regarded as one of the world's best loose forwards, enjoying his final school years was more important than playing winning rugby.

A pupil at Rosehill College in Papakura, which has traditionally had a modest 1st XV in the Counties school competition, Read's obvious sporting talent won him a scholarship to St Kent's in the fourth form.

He lasted only one year - he decided his mates and the Rosehill environment were more important than developing his rugby and cricket skills.

Read, now 27, says he has never regretted returning to Rosehill, adding that the increasing professionalism of the school game, with many matches now televised, was a double-edged sword.

"I look at it and think it's great in some ways but in others I think it's possibly a little bit sad," he says. "You look at the games they televise and it's always the big rugby schools. And that's where everyone looks now, at those schools. No one goes along to watch Rosehill College's 1st XV playing James Cook High, for example.

"It's great because I know the guys coming in now to our team who are 18, 19, 20 are certainly a lot more professional in their approach but maybe ... they are missing out on other things too."

Read, who showed enough skill as a young batsman to suggest he could have been a first-class cricketer, adds: "That [enjoyment] was certainly the reason why I went back to Rosehill, putting my mates and the environment over the team I could have played for.

"And it was great fun, those 1st XV years were awesome. We weren't the greatest team around but we showed up and enjoyed each other's company."

A highlight was making the final against Waiuku College, a match Read's team lost, but his happiest memories were victories over Wesley College's 2nd XV.

"For us that was our big game and we won probably a couple of them. For us guys that was a pretty big feat to beat them."

No8 Read, who has played 51 tests and has been a cornerstone at the Crusaders since moving to Christchurch seven years ago, says playing rugby as a profession wasn't something he or his teammates thought about. He says he was lucky a coach and sports co-ordinator at Rosehill, James Fraser, took him under his wing.

"He put a pretty big emphasis on me and got me coming in and doing some extra training in the mornings and talked to different guys about the mental stuff and nutrition.

"He invested a little bit into me, actually, and that probably set up some professionalism in me and showed what I could get out of the game."

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