Click here to watch all eight episodes
The pressures and joys of running a team in Auckland first XV schoolboy rugby in a low-decile part of town are presented for all to see in a new behind-the-scenes documentary series.
”The Blue Wall” - which can now be viewed online here, comprises a series of fly-on-the-wall documentaries broadly based around Tangaroa College’s 2020 season in Auckland’s premier 1A competition (where they finished 10th out of 12).
Think bro’Town meets Sunderland Till I Die.
At a time when Auckland school principals have announced they are pulling the pin on future media coverage of first XV rugby, out of concern that there is an unhealthy level of scrutiny on the players, The Blue Wall is destined to become something of a collector’s item. Documentary film-maker Anthony Costello non-judgementally presents the day-to-day struggles coach Saua Leaupepetele and his first XV players face in an environment where good luck for some is going home and finding the power is still on; where toughness is worn as a mask, and even ‘easy’ tends to be hard.
But equally, first XV rugby is revealed as an important vehicle for bringing the community together, while also opening players’ eyes to life’s possibilities well beyond their Otara bubble.
As they say in the doco, “Welcome to Otara, home of the brave”.
The “Blue Wall” is not only the Tangaroa team nickname, but also a concept in which every brick in the wall is comprised of positive team values.
While nobody is playing to the camera, 34-year-old Costello’s documentary scenes variously unfold as visual bricks of their own: heart-warming, raw, brooding, engaging and quirky.
Costello chronicles everything from team meetings to the players at home, the educational challenges, even a 3am garage kava session and the various manoeuvrings after one of Tangaroa’s players, Benaiah Ioelu, is signed up to a development deal by the Sydney Roosters.
And no blushes are spared as first-five Ngatokorua Kamana is hauled over the coals after skipping a team aftermatch function, with the matter resolved right in front of Costello’s camera.
”Just be up front and honest,” Kamana is lectured. “If we lose, we all lose together.”
At this point you’d definitely offer a penny for the thoughts of the Auckland principals steering the new “cone of silence” media edict, if they could find their voice.
But despite his pivotal role in producing a documentary which effectively takes the public deep behind Tangaroa’s Blue Wall (to the presumed chagrin of the Auckland principals) Costello agrees with the decision to dial back schoolboy first XV publicity.
However in doing so he drew a clear distinction between the environment he witnessed at Tangaroa College and what he consumed at some rival schools as he followed The Blue Wall for a season.
”At Tangaroa the boys played for fun and for each other,” Costello said. “The pressures they mostly faced were life pressures, not rugby pressures.
“It was a very different experience to go to other schools and see the pressure the players were under. Those on the sidelines were far too into it.
“By contrast, at Tangaroa it was very supportive and loving. It was less about the rugby and more about the boys.
“For me rugby was just a vehicle to tell the story of the Tangaroa players and the coach. It is a very human story, rather than being a story about 1A rugby. It was a different world and a beautiful experience.”
Leaupepetele – interviewed before the Auckland-wide first XV media ban was announced – said in his view media scrutiny was all part of the package.
”It is what you signed up for,” he said. “Exposure comes in many forms these days. If you have to protect kids from exposure, you have to ask yourself: ‘Are they ready for this level, for the crowds on matchday, or for the possibility of end-of-season on Eden Park No 1?’
”If media is a problem, with the big budgets many other schools have, it is surprising they don’t also have a media support person alongside the likes of their mental skills coach.
”But one thing I said to Anthony before we did the documentary was he had to be up front with the boys about the negative comments that could come out of the exercise. In this day and age there are a lot of haters, as the students call them. There are people who will post something because it is just in their blood.”
Leaupepetele, perhaps the breakout star of the show, advised no schoolboys were harmed in the making of The Blue Wall documentaries.
But there were plenty of struggles and challenges.
Leaupepetele: “We have 25 boys. Out of those 25 the reality is only 10 of them can really play rugby. The rest of them are filling up spots.”
But he is philosophical about this: “If you don’t have frustrations, you don’t have challenges, and if you don’t have challenges you don’t have learnings.
”After games coaches will sometimes share their struggles and in my head I will think, mate, that’s nothing.”
Leaupepetele is himself a Tangaroa old boy and was co-coach when Wesley College won the national title in 2004, so he has a good school and rugby baseline to work from with his judgements.
However he found it was not possible to simply transfer the gold nuggets from Wesley to Tangaroa.
”At Wesley College it was so easy to do a lot of things there because of their deep culture there. They were set in what they do because of their rich history.
”The kids at Wesley college are rich-poor. They live in a hostel and are guaranteed hot water every day. They get their washing done every day. They have a games room.
”But our boys can be poor-poor. They go home and the power might have been turned off. You don’t appreciate the difference until you cross over to their bubble. It’s a whole different way of living.”
By contrast Tangaroa only opened in 1976. You could argue it is through initiatives such as The Blue Wall that they are building their own culture.
”We are always going to have our challenges and I could sit here and moan and groan about scholarships, international students, and everything else about 1A rugby but it is not going to change. There will always be a loophole somewhere.
”For our boys 1A is a platform to experience and be exposed to the highest level of rugby.”
Leaupepetele also sees rugby as a tool to take the Tangaroa players outside their Otara bubble.
”The great thing about playing in 1A is they get to walk through the gates at Kings College, which is just up the road, but a place they would never otherwise go and it is a whole new world to them.
’’And with this documentary series we essentially get the reverse, with us non-South Aucklanders taken inside the Otara bubble.The players might have nicknames like The Human Bulldozer or The Slippery Fish, and come across as real tough.
”But that’s just a mask,” Leaupepetele warned. “Behind that mask is young Johnny.
”The players also make their own unvarnished observations on camera.
In one episode a Tangaroa player even offers grudging respect for his pakeha rivals: “We underestimate the Caucasians but they love the dirty work, the physicality, the aggressiveness.”
Costello, who has a professional background in making shorter 5-10 minute documentaries, was looking to move into long form storytelling. The project was further prompted by his friend, Alan Va’a, an iconic Otara figure renowned for his social work, who was sick and tired of his suburb being best associated with gangs.
“He (Alan) told me about all the negative stereotypes of Ōtara and how they weren’t true. He said I should do a positive story about the area. We got talking and Tangaroa College came up.
”The next day he set up a meeting with principal, Davida Suasua, and the day after that I started filming the series.”
Va’a died while the series was being made and it has been dedicated to him. And while Suasua authorised the project, she is no longer principal at Tangaroa, having this year taken up the same position at Rosehill College.
Leaupepetele was initially unconvinced by the documentary pitch.
“I thought: it’s a losing team, nothing to rave on about, why would you want to do that?”But Costello was accepted, went in and just filmed what he saw.
”The reality is Ōtara is a beautiful community,’ Costello said. “The people there are some of the kindest, friendliest, happiest people I’ve ever met.
”The perception of Ōtara in the news, from my experience there, is completely wrong. The people I met are all proud to be from Ōtara and love it there.
“It’s an uplifting series because that was the reality on the ground.”
The boys were welcoming of Costello right from the start.
”On the first day after school I was invited back to a house where one of the boys was giving the team haircuts. I ended up getting my haircuts from him. The families all welcomed me into their homes and showed me so much love. I had so many meals and cups of tea. I consider them all friends for life.
“They are all genuinely lovely people and I’m proud to call them all friends. I think that no matter what happens with their rugby careers they’ll all do well in life. They’re all great people, who come from great families.
”Family” became the major documentary takeaway for Costello.
“The biggest lesson for me was how happy the people I met were in Ōtara,” he said. “During the process of making the series I became a father and what struck me was how important family was to them.
”They put a lot of emphasis on being together as a family and I could see how it made them all so happy. It made me realise my main priority of being a father was to spend time with my family. To enjoy all the small moments with them and not get caught up in everything else.”
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