The New Zealand Schoolboys team celebrate after beating Australia in 2017. Photo / Photosport
The New Zealand Schoolboys team celebrate after beating Australia in 2017. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand Rugby’s plan for an Under-18 team is opposed by top schools, fearing it undermines the Secondary Schools team.
Schools argue the move could compromise students' education and volunteer support for First XVrugby.
NZR says the change will increase inclusivity and align with international standards, despite schools' concerns.
New Zealand Rugby’s plan to field an Under-18 team in two games against Australia this year is being vehemently opposed by the country’s top academic institutions.
They say the move will not only destroy the country’s iconic Secondary Schools team but will also,they believe, effectively be a hostile takeover bid of schools rugby by the national union.
A consortium of 40-plus heavyweight schools – including Auckland Grammar, St Kentigern College, King’s College, St Peter’s College and Kelston Boys’ High School, as well as Hamilton Boys’ High School, Hastings Boys’ High School, Otago Boys’ High School, Christchurch Boys’ High School and Wellington College – have written to New Zealand Rugby (NZR).
They say that for multiple reasons, they do not support the move to launch a national U18 team.
The most important is that they believe it will see their elite pupils move into the national body’s high-performance system and potentially compromise their education.
They also say that removing the aspiration of being selected for and representing a national schools team will inevitably lead to the virtual collapse of the volunteer support on which First XV rugby is built.
But of equal concern for this group – who would rank among the country’s most experienced educators – is the sense that NZR, having failed to communicate its intentions before putting out a media release on March 10, is trying to fulfil a long-held ambition of taking control of the rugby development of elite schoolboy players.
Under NZR’s new plan, the iconic New Zealand Secondary Schools team (NZSS), who have been in existence since the early 1980s, will become one of four feeder teams from which the national U18 team will be selected, and it will be the U18 team, not NZSS, who play international fixtures against Australia.
Leicester Fainga'anuku scores against Australian Schools. Photo / David Neilson, Photosport
The U18 team will be run, funded and managed by NZR.
It will control the selection of players and coaches and determine when trials, training camps and fixtures will take place – albeit the union has been at pains to stress that it will continue to lean heavily on the expertise of First XV coaches and run the team in partnership with schools.
Otago Boys’ High School rector Richard Hall, who is operating as a spokesman for the schools that have signed the letter, says: “There is real anger over this among school principals.
“NZ Secondary Schools team has gone from a test team to a trial team and that is a slap in the face.”
Hall says he is not only disappointed that he, with many other principals, first read about the NZR’s U18 proposal in the media, but he also doesn’t understand the rationale of changing a set-up that has a long and continuous history of success.
In the letter sent to NZR, the principals state: “Our schools are and can continue to be the main source of future players. We provide rigorous, teenage competitions, excellent coaches and player development.
“With our continued support the majority of top rugby players will continue to come through schools.
Schools argue the move could compromise students' education and volunteer support for First XV rugby. Photo / Paul Rickard
“We do this very well and are willing to continue doing so. We see schools as a strength of our system to be advanced, not diminished.
“As the heads of schools who have supported NZR over many decades, we would like you to fully understand that your actions have downgraded the NZ Secondary Schools team. At best, it is now part of a four-team U18 trial.
“We need you to understand that your approach will have an impact on our level of commitment to, and support of, NZR.”
The letter the principals have written follows another they wrote in September 2023 when NZR asked for feedback on a proposal to rebrand the NZSS team as New Zealand U18.
The same schools gave the same detailed feedback about why they didn’t support that change, but never received a detailed response from NZR to address their concerns.
The principals say they assumed from the radio silence that the proposal had been binned, so they were shocked to read in the media that a U18 national team was being launched this year and would be playing two games in Australia.
“While we did not receive a response to our letter, it was our understanding that you had listened to our concerns and decided not to proceed with your proposal,” the recent letter sent to NZR states.
“To have not been communicated since, we perceive to be a strong signal that our collective input into New Zealand Rugby, through the secondary school game, is not valued.”
One other significant concern for the principals is the prospect of future schedules not aligning with the school holidays the way they have this year, and that from next year, trials, training camps and matches could clash with school commitments at a crucial time in the academic cycle.
Hall says schools are best placed to provide the balance young people need to derive a holistic education, and that in his experience, high-performance sports programmes (run by sports bodies) take priority over everything else and have a tendency to ask pupils and parents to make tough choices between attending events or doing well at exams.
NZR’s general manager of professional rugby and performance, Chris Lendrum.
But despite the strong opposition, NZR says the change to promote an U18 team as opposed to NZSS as the aspirational goal for age-grade players will capture a greater number of people and foster greater inclusivity.
NZR’s general manager of professional rugby and performance, Chris Lendrum, says that on last year’s figures, 30% of players eligible for a national U18 team were registered at clubs and either not attending or not playing for a school.
NZR has also argued that the move to an U18 national team will bring New Zealand into line with leading European nations and Australia – something which has incensed the principals, who believe the strength of the schools’ rugby programmes sits at the heart of the country’s success on the international stage and that the nation has a rich history of being innovators and leaders, not followers.
The schools have also long argued that anyone still U18-eligible, and not at school, can be exposed to high-level representative rugby through selection for the NZ Barbarian team, which played the Australia U18 team last year.
“It does appear in NZR’s haste to emulate what happens in the Northern Hemisphere (and Australia), [the move] has been at the direct expense of our country’s unique secondary schools rugby,” the letter states.
“Only South Africa has a similar landscape to us, with rugby played in schools across all regions and in all types of schools (state, integrated, private, co-ed, single-sex).
“Following others has not been the traditional blueprint for our success in the past, and we question the wisdom in doing so now.”
NZR says it has apologised to schools for the lack of communication before the U18 proposal was made public and says it intends for Lendrum and other senior personnel to meet with the principals who have objected to the plans, to alleviate their concerns.
In a statement to the Herald, NZR said: “New Zealand Rugby acknowledges there are some mixed views about the introduction of the men’s U18 team to the high-performance pathway in 2025 but [we] stand behind a programme we strongly believe provides the best opportunities to the greatest number of male players in the U18 cohort, noting that almost 30% of eligible players last year were playing for clubs, not schools.
“We will continue to discuss the U18 pathways with schools with the aim of working together to give our best young players a chance to represent New Zealand on the international stage.”
