2019 School Rugby
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Something that has been totally missed.
Parents or guardians sign off these decisions for what they feel is in the best interests of their children.
I spoke to a father today who’s son went to St Kentigern College a few years back,his son is currently in one of the NZ super rugby squads ,without the scholarship his son received ,he doubts wether the same doors would have opened had he stayed at the rural college he was attending.
I personally hate the word poached being used,as the parents and guardians are the ones that sign off on these decisions at the end of the day. -
This has been an issue for years in Super 8n rugby. 6 of the Super 8 rugby teams give financial scholarships for players. The only ones that do not are Tauranga BIys College and Gisborne (I think), that hamstrings them massively. TBC has lost a few good players, but are maminly hurt from not attracting others. Obviously some schools are still magnet schools because of sport, but that is at year 9 level, not year 13!
I love the action the other schools are taking. Fuck St Kents. They want to be dicks, then take the fact nobody will want to play your school.
I do find it rich that Hamilton Boys and Rotorua Boys are bleating.... they rely on poaching 100% -
@baron-silas-greenback is it any different to all the club players who use to gravitate to Ponsonby back in the day when they were just about unbeatable..
At the end of the day,,the kids and their parents made the decisions to move St Kentigern..can you not see that..? -
@steven-harris said in 2019 School Rugby:
@baron-silas-greenback is it any different to all the club players who use to gravitate to Ponsonby back in the day when they were just about unbeatable..
At the end of the day,,the kids and their parents made the decisions to move St Kentigern..can you not see that..?Yes it is very different. Pretty obvious.
And thanks captain obvious for stating how it is the kids and parents who make the decision. Pure genius.... here I was thiking that the kid and parents didnt decide. Your post was sooo enlightening
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@baron-silas-greenback I wonder what desion you would make given the same opportunity..?.
That’s the angle your missing ..! -
@steven-harris said in 2019 School Rugby:
@baron-silas-greenback I wonder what desion you would make given the same opportunity..?.
That’s the angle your missing ..!Where did I at any stage blame the kids or parents. I didnt. So try again and this time actually address the points I made, not the ones you wish I had.
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While the reasons and machinations may be complex what this boils down to (in the Auckland case) is that the schools in the comp feel that things have become unbalanced and if left unchecked they may as well not bother participating.
The recruitment happens at most schools that set themselves up to use rugby as an identity but I guess they are confirming what St Kents say in that they are doing it too well.
St Kents need to realise that if they are going to load up and gain a big advantage they may not have anyone to play against.I have seen this kind of thing happen before in Wellington where it was accepted that there were haves and have nots and that good players would gravitate toward the haves but when schools were already strong and actively sought to be stronger at the expense of others pressure was put on them by College Sport to reign it in for the good of the comp. No one is interested in a foregone conclusion.
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@baron-silas-greenback I don't know about the other Super 8 schools, but all but one of this year's Napier's 1st XV players attended the school since year 9 and the only exception joined the school in year 10 and came from Lindisfarne. No scholarships to lure players from other schools to NBHS.
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@steven-harris said in 2019 School Rugby:
Something that has been totally missed.
Parents or guardians sign off these decisions for what they feel is in the best interests of their children.
I spoke to a father today who’s son went to St Kentigern College a few years back,his son is currently in one of the NZ super rugby squads ,without the scholarship his son received ,he doubts wether the same doors would have opened had he stayed at the rural college he was attending.
I personally hate the word poached being used,as the parents and guardians are the ones that sign off on these decisions at the end of the day.Argument by a single case, isn't very helpful. What about the boy who had a miserable time at St Kents, and went back to his old school. And still became AB captain? What about the kid poached Year 13 who broke his leg early on, and then had a thoroughly miserable year at a new school with no friends and dropped out of rugby completely?
The kids who are poached late (years 12 and 13) are in no danger of missing provincial selections. They are poached precisely because they are already outstanding. The schools take all the hard work of the boy and junior coaches at another school and take the credit for it. (St Kents still have Kieran Read as one of their Old Boys who went on to great things, the rude pricks.)
The slightly more ethical schools take them in at Year 9. Then the kids at least spend their whole time at the one school and have sensible friendships. And I would argue quite a lot better educations too.
There was a fairly thoughtful piece in the Herald about this. There is very little evidence going to those top rugby schools leads to good professional careers. Hamilton BHS has a terrible rate of conversion to pro rugby. If you are a standout player, then you stand out even more at a "lesser" school. There's no way Mitch Jacobsen was going to be missed because his parents chose not to send him to HBHS.
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It's likely only the private schools that offer sports scholarships in the true sense of the word, because the cost of their school fees are prohibitive to a large part of the community. When you look at the demographic of St Kents star rugby players most wouldn't live in the area and wouldn't be going to the school if their parents had to pay the tuition fees themselves. I have family who live in their zone and there's no way they could afford to send their kids there as an average middle class family.
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So in summary: St Kents have crossed "the line" but "the line" is kind of a squiggle that all the other teams conveniently sit on the right side of after appointing themselves placers of "the line".
As far as im concerned if a player attends a school they should be able to play for that school.
If the schools are so desperate that they want to pay players to attend their school or give the scholarships then so be it.It's highschool rugby ffs.
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so from reading this page, every school does it except the school a poster went to.
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@mariner4life said in 2019 School Rugby:
so from reading this page, every school does it except the school a poster went to.
I specifically said my school had a sports director guilty of precisely what St Kents do. True, we were much worse in another sport, but I never said we were snow white.
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@chester-draws think you take things a bit too literally, TSF is hyperbole capital...
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This reminds me of the school boy rugby disaster in Oz. Kicking out teams that give you a flogging rather than raise yourself to the level required to compete. Seems utterly self defeating.
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@antipodean They do need to have nationwide regulations in place. St Kents circumvented the 1A rules by doing their additional poaching outside of the Auckland region (x5).
