Key points
- Wesley College are considering participating in an enlarged Auckland 1B rugby competition but face concerns over early elimination and loyalty to their current competition.
- Sacred Heart College’s First XV rugby team are fuelled by the premiere of a documentary celebrating their historic 2023 championship win after a 58-year drought.
- The documentary’s creation sparks debate over media scrutiny in Auckland First XV rugby, showcasing the ongoing tension between school principals and the rugby community.
- Feilding High School and Palmerston North Boys’ High are preparing for their first clash since 2015, highlighting a historical rivalry and the anticipation surrounding the upcoming match.
No team should be more energised for the start of 2024 Auckland 1A First XV Rugby on May 11 than reigning champions Sacred Heart College.
Because they couldn’t help but be inspired and galvanised by this week’s premiere of a must-see documentary of the college’s historic 2023 triumph, SACRED: A Rugby Story For The Ages.
Last year, Sacred Heart claimed the elusive 1A title for the first time since 1965 and to mark that 58-year drought-breaker, college old boys crafted a landmark documentary of cinematic quality, recounting the campaign primarily through the eyes of the players.
As well as match excerpts, the 41-minute documentary gives behind-the-scenes footage, player narrations of key moments and reflections from old boys, including legendary All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick.
The end product got the swish red carpet treatment before an audience of 520 (at $30 a head) on Tuesday night, and was well worthy of it.
It’s not only a slick legacy project for the Sacred Heart College community but arguably also a wider rugby monument reflecting universal First XV team values everywhere.
Even more remarkably, SACRED was cobbled together on an Auckland First XV landscape where a media ban endures.
There is an ongoing societal debate on how much scrutiny should be afforded to First XV rugby, primarily between Auckland school principals on one hand and the rump of the rugby community on the other. But either way, the love of the game that this documentary captures is a real antidote for anyone feeling all rugbyed-out by comings and goings at other levels of the code.
Secondary school rugby documentaries are not that common, but as a benchmark for comparison, the 2022 effort, The Blue Wall, about Tangaroa College’s First XV, presented the day-to-day struggles they faced in an environment where good luck for some was going home and finding the power was still on.
It was stirring stuff but tinged with a sense of bleak struggle, and thus was more about life pressures than rugby pressures. By contrast, SACRED is a celebration of passion, courage, friendship, community and love of rugby, which makes it a joy to watch.
The SACRED project was headed by 1983 head boy Kelsen Butler, a bloke so passionate about his old college that he even wore Sacred Heart rugby socks to his own wedding.
These days he is the principal of an independent television production company, Sport Inc., and this time last year was terrified a talented Sacred Heart team would finally end 58 years of hurt only for a fruit-loop media ban to diminish any record of it.
So Butler had his company cameras tracking Sacred Heart at every game last year and then retrospectively interviewed key players, aiming to capture a special bond between a group of young men embracing the challenge of creating history.
“It’s a story of ambition, desire, resilience, pride, courage, and joy,” Butler said.
Early on in the documentary, there’s a snapshot of the beguiling innocence of youth when 2023 head boy Noah Grace, all of 18, stares at the camera and says: “Winning the 1A has been the goal of my whole life, really.”
He goes on to reflect on how his dad Matt twice had a crack at it 30 years earlier but failed, though was then able to live vicariously through his two sons, who finally got the job done.
SACRED succeeds largely because of such heartfelt moments and the avoidance of too much coach-speak. And players such as Grace, Dominic Kelleher, Tonga Helu, Rico Simpson and Cohen Norrie tell their tale with more eloquence and insight than you will ever hear from Super Rugby Pacific players in post-match interviews.
When Sacred Heart made last year’s final, Butler got permission from Auckland Rugby to film it and the highlights have been skillfully edited. Given the match wasn’t livestreamed, it didn’t contravene the media ban, Butler argued.
That in itself raises a fascinating point of debate. When does media start being media - and when does it stop being media? Would written coverage of matches be more fondly embraced if only publication had more of a time delay? Only a school principal could tell you that.
Weaknesses? Well, Sacred Heart headmaster Patrick Walsh had the cheek of a third former to make a couple of cameo appearances, given he signed his school up to this unresolved media ban. Mind you, his fellow Auckland 1A principals might issue him a “please explain” at the next headmasters’ morning tea.
Then again, everyone is so busy confiscating mobile phones in schools these days, it will probably escape unnoticed. But who knows, maybe there is a parallel universe out there where, say, De La Salle’s Myles Hogarty sternly sets Walsh “principal detention” and 100 lines of “I must remember not to nurture 1A media during a 1A media ban”.
The documentary premiere of SACRED drew a thunderous ovation. Of course they are so unconditional in their support at Sacred Heart they would have cheered even if the doco had been a load of old tosh.
But it’s not. Even to dispassionate eyes, this was a great watch and a bit special. It’s just a shame the deadline for entry in the Voyager Media Awards later this month has passed.
Those who have seen it can make up their own minds, but is SACRED the finest secondary school rugby legacy media project ever produced? Feedback welcomed. (Email address at the bottom.)
Wesley College still mulling an enlarged Auckland 1B competition
While there was a lot of pre-season chatter about the formation of an enlarged Auckland 1B competition as a competitive pathway into 1A ranks, Paerata’s Wesley College - one of the schools that could benefit most, given their horrendous travel commitment to places such as Hastings, Feidling, Masterton and Whanganui in the Central North Island First XV rugby competition - has not, so far, been completely sold on the idea.
Wesley coach Lawrence Lawrence said there were problems with the proposal to have 24 teams split into three pools of eight in geographic zones, which meant it was not as appealing as it first seemed.
“You could find yourself eliminated pretty early from any promotion-relegation stuff,” he said. “We had a look, had a think, but it has not been taken to the next stage yet.
“We wouldn’t completely rule it out. We are still open, but waiting until we can see a better picture.”
There was also a sense of loyalty to the Central North Island competition, which had provided them with a pathway since 2016, while Lawrence said there were also latent educational and cultural benefits to his squad spending a lot of time on the road together.
Wesley has a young squad with just five returning from last year but still have performance expectations.
In pre-season Wesley have drawn 24-24 with Sacred Heart and beaten Te Aute College 39-26. On Saturday, they host Rotorua Boys’ High - recent 22-15 victors over Auckland Grammar - in a traditional exchange at 12 noon.
Wesley’s player to watch this season is blindside flanker Suli Pahulu, who was the team’s MVP last year.
Meanwhile, the Counties schoolboy rugby landscape is likely to change significantly in coming years, with St Stephens (Tipene) at Bombay re-opening in 2025 (just Year 9 and 10 to start with) while a new Catholic college, St Ignatius of Loyola, has now opened in Drury, and is expected to have a full cohort of 900 by 2030.
Palmerston North’s unsolved mystery
How come the Central North Island’s First XV champions, Feilding High School, barely ever play Palmerston North Boys’ High, given they’re just 22 minutes apart on Google Maps?
That’s a question you might ponder ahead of the two schools clashing for the first time since 2015, in an eagerly anticipated local derby in the Tranzit Coachlines First XV Festival at 12.45pm on Saturday at Central Energy Trust Arena.
But even this match wasn’t supposed to happen. However, when Wellington champions Scots College curiously withdrew from the annual pre-season series, featuring Gisborne Boys’ High, Palmerston North Boys’ High, Napier Boys’ High, Hastings Boys’ High and the top four schools from the Wellington Premiership in 2023, it left a gap in the draw that Feilding were able to fill.
The last time Feilding played Palmerston North was in the same series in 2015, when Scots were absent again because they were representing New Zealand at the Sanix World Youth Championships in Japan.
On that occasion, Feilding were drawn to play Palmerston North in Manawatū, but Palmerston North insisted the fixture be relocated to a back field at Napier. Palmerston North turned up in hoops instead of their traditional “while jerseys” and were soundly beaten 25-15, as future Super Rugby players Vilimoni Koroi and Jona Nareki flourished for Feilding.
Before that, the only time the two Manawatū heavyweights have played in the last 15 years was in 2011. A crowd of more than 5000 turned up to Arena Manawatū to watch a match broadcast on Sky TV. Palmerston North won 15-11 - and remarkably there were two tries disallowed 100 metres apart in the same sequence of play.
Historically, the schools didn’t play each other because Palmerston North was much stronger. However, Feilding rugby surged about two decades ago.
According to Palmerston North, it only did so because of Feilding’s overtly aggressive recruiting. Meanwhile, other explanations from locals only showcase the worst of small-town insular thinking and the grudge has endured.
But the schools can’t avoid each other this time, and it will be a cracker. Both sides have won four on the bounce, with Palmerston North having notched recent victories against Whanganui Collegiate (47-10), St Paul’s Collegiate (22-5) and Rongotai College (59-5).
Feilding, meanwhile, have accounted for Wellington College (24-19), St Patrick’s College, Silverstream (26-17), New Plymouth Boys’ High School (41-7) and Gisborne Boys’ High School (35-11).
Scots College’s unsolved mystery
Here’s another festival-related head-scratcher: Why did Scots withdraw from the Tranzit Coachlines First XV Festival?
The reason is not clear. Calls and messages from the Herald seeking clarification on their withdrawal went unanswered. An inquiry to College Sport Wellington drew the response that Scots “had some traditionals lined up at this time, but they have fallen through”.
Last week, Scots competed in their annual Presbyterian Quadrangular tournament, where they were beaten by Auckland hosts St Kentigern College in the final.
But why would Scots suddenly arrange other fixtures when they had a chance to face the best schools in their region, as they have done annually since 2018?
Scots did withdraw from a Hurricanes Regional final last year, sighting a shortage of props. Are Scots short of props again? Presbyterian Quadrangular is played under different eligibility rules.
Or were Scots simply banned from the festival as a penalty for their behaviour last year, which saw them disqualified by the Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council for a replacement infraction during a regional semifinal against Fielding? That ban was overturned on appeal, only for Scots to withdraw from the final against Palmerston North.
Nobody at the Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council could confirm or deny that Scots had been banned. But the absence of the Wellington champions reflects badly on the capital. And it is a real shame for the players in the Scots team, who would have embraced the challenge of travel and tough Super 8 opposition.
Meanwhile, credit to Hutt International Boys’ School for fronting. They only have 28 open-weight players at their school, including four new props in the First XV.
Tranzit Coachlines Festival, Saturday
HIBS v Gisborne BHS, Bill Brown Park 1, 11am; Palmerston North BHS v Feilding, CET Arena 3 12:45pm; St Patrick’s Silverstream v Napier BHS, Bill Brown Park 2, 1pm; Hastings BHS v Wellington College, Bill Brown Park 1, 1pm.
- A physical Saint Kentigern have once again won the Presbyterian Schools Quadrangular Rugby tournament, beating Scots College 24-5 in the final. That makes it seven years on the trot for St Kents, with hard-working lock Sam Jancys their player of the tournament. Earlier they beat St Andrews (Christchurch) 52-14.
- Best for Scots in the tournament was loose forward (and head boy) Reweti Ngarimu. Meanwhile, St Andrews came from behind to beat Lindisfarne 30-22 for third place. Best for St Andrews was No. 8 Will Voice.
- Defending North Harbour and Blues region champions Westlake Boys High begin their 2024 season with a home game against Massey on Saturday. Westlake is this season coached by Rob Mildenhall and Che Muller and pre-season results include a fine 29-12 win over Hamilton Boys’ High School, but also a 19-14 loss to St Peters College. Westlake were invited to comment on the season ahead. Meanwhile, Mahurangi College has replaced Ōrewa College in the top First XV bracket.
North Harbour Saturday draw
(home team first, all 12 noon)
Mahurangi v Takapuna Grammar; Manurewa v Rangitoto; Rosmini v Whangārei; Westlake v Massey.
Readers are invited to send their first XV rugby updates, news snippets and hot takes to nzschoolboyrugby@gmail.com.
