I have been thinking about how to write this up without sounding like I’m being mean or anything to the ones selected. In all honesty I’m not sure I can do that at all and so I’m just going to come right out and say what I think and where I think this team is going in a few years and how it is destroying a pathway that has created so many avenues for High School players in New Zealand. I am going to start this by saying this is not a “Players Problem” because they don’t select themselves they are being selected and so this is not towards them or anything like that in this write up. The players are just playing the game and then given a call or email saying they are being considered and then told they have been successful in the process and made the NZ Barbarians side or the Maori U18 side, so this isn’t at them. This write up here is for the Boards or Selectors……..wait not even selectors really they are just doing a Job given to them this is for whoever makes the rules or sets the standard for being in this team.
As far as I can remember the New Zealand Secondary Schools Team and the NZ Barbarians Team have been set aside for School Boy Rugby players and to be honest I never thought or even wondered if it was an U18’s side or a School Boy side. The difference is that a School Boy side is in the name and you have to be in a Secondary School while being eligible and an Under 18 side is just a player under the age of 18 on the 1st January. I couldn’t find any kind of rules on the NZ Barbarians website about what the eligibility is for making this side and so I can’t really say why or when it changed or if it was ever just a secondary school team. Here is the thing though NZ Barbarians Club is such a massive help and service to Rugby in NZ alone and it really does so much for secondary school rugby and probably the reason we have it on Sky or TV at all, they do some really cool stuff, but I do want some clarity on the rules for selection. Or do we have our answer already and accept it’s an U18 team and not a secondary school team? I mean from this selection it’s not even a NZ based selection team because if you sign for a NZ Club I guess you can make it as well even if you haven’t been playing in NZ. Which opens questions like if a School Boy or not even a School Boy but a kid who is U18 and really talented who is from South Africa because we have a massive following there and he signs for the Chiefs or Blues or Crusaders then he is now able to be selected for the NZ Barbarians? Is that right?
My thing is that I do a High School Top 200 Ranking and just because it’s called “Top 200” that doesn’t mean there are just 200 good players there are at least 300+ that pass through the Rankings throughout the year. In this 300+ players in the Rankings there is a mix of Year 12 and Year 13 players mostly Year 13 but a bunch of Year 12’s as well, so we are talking about a massive pool of players. NZSS selected 26 players in their team so that means only 8% of those 300+ players are selected for a NZ Pathway opportunity in a Secondary Schools side. These are just the kids who are enrolled in a Secondary School in NZ and play 1st XV Rugby. So if you miss out on that NZSS team the general public understanding is that we have the NZ Barbarians side which is considered the NZSS 2nd XV would be the next team you could make and I see this team as the Team with NZSS talent but there is only so many spaces. But this is the next best thing where you can get Pro level Coaching and training and the NZ Pathway is still the same as being in the NZSS, so the 8% even though really small got a bit better and increased to 16%-18%. Now even though that is a small percentage it still increased the pool of players in High School to be on the NZ Pathway and be a part of the best Coaching they can get for the next level. Then when NZ Maori U18 Development started up their Program and with their Pro Coaching coming into it and then increasing that number again to make it a 24%-25% chance of getting onto that NZ Pathway because they were beating the NZ Barbarians and the NZSS teams as well the Development for NZ School Boy Rugby players was healthy.
I have always been in favour of boys returning to school if they are still Under 18 because for me it is the maturity or lack of maturity for the adult world that can be really hard for them. Us adults also find that it sucks and we sometimes hate it too and so why force our boys into this working world if they are not ready for that responsibility and they are still under 18. I don’t care that they got to Year 13 they are still young and immature because they are still 17 year olds but people make a massive deal out of it and call Schools cheaters and say things like “I left school at 17 and I wasn’t ready, so they should too” man go ahead with that nonsense we can change things if it didn’t work to me it’s not working. Well that attitude has brought us to this point where Schools are now saying no to Young Year 13’s (Kids who will finish High School as 17 year olds) and so now we have this massive amount of players that are playing Club Rugby and are all 17 year olds. The NZ Pathway for them is supposed to be U19 Rep sides but because of the age and change of Rep name from “Schools” to “U18” meant that you can now have players selected from anywhere in the country or outside of the country as long as they are U18 and signed to a NZ team for the coming year. In the NZ Barbarian U18 Team they have 9 NZ School Boys players, 1 Australian School Boy player and a record 16 NZ Club players selected. Triumph Voice and Noah Rogers were NZSS players last year and Junior Slade was a NZ Barbarian player last year. But there are 16 spots taken up by Clubs players that usually were given to School Boy Rugby players. Then we have Kane Shedlock from Brisbane Boys College who is a Kiwi but played in Ballymore Cup in Brisbane and he has been selected. I don’t know if he is a good player or not but that is not the question we are asking. The question is “Are players from outside of NZ able to play because they signed to a NZ team for next year?” and if the answer is yes the next question is “Does that player have to be a Kiwi or have ties to NZ?”. We have seen players come from Australia and play in NZ 1st XV teams which is all good to me because they are attending school here but to be selected to a Rep side and not currently playing here is different to me.
Maori U18 only have 3 Club Players and the rest are 1st XV Rugby players and so I am not that worried about that because I care more for High School players and 3 spots is a small number compared to 16 spots. Maori U18 Development have shown year after year that they are really giving these boys more than just Rugby and it works. They have beaten both the NZ Barbarians and NZSS and they are on track every year to be a force in 1st XV Rugby and U18 Rugby in NZ and wish they got more support to build it up more to help more players around the country. Do I wish they just picked 1st XV players? Yeah 100% because that is what I am about and what I try and push the public to see but 3 is not 16 and I see 16 1st XV players missing out on spots, missing out on NZ Pathway Coaching which could push them through to the next stage of their careers. Maybe I have it wrong and have been wrong the whole time thinking that these Rep sides were for High School or 1st XV players but they were not and they were just for U18 players regardless of school status. I look at the 1 School Boys player from Australia, 3 Maori U18 players and 16 NZ Barbarian players and see a team 6 players short of a full team. There are 6 players that are U18 out there in NZ who are playing Club or 6 Kiwi Boys from Australia wanting to come play in NZ after school that can be selected and put in their own team. Why not come up with another team for another Pathway Team of U18 players and leave the NZSS, NZ Barbarians and Maori U18’s for High School 1st XV players in NZ? I have even said that I would be happy to find funding for a NZ/Samoa U18 team that would be of 1st XV NZ players as another Pathways NZ Team and get more Pro Coaches to help more players in NZ, if NZ Rugby would give me that Green light to go ahead.
If you are a parent of a player now or in the past that had a son playing 1st XV Rugby and saw day to day the sacrifices these boys choose to make because they want to be given an opportunity to prove themselves then you know where my passion comes from for this clarity of understanding. I have seen over the past 12 years players push and push themselves only to not be selected or seen by anyone with the power to give them an opportunity at a Pathway and they know that the opportunities are few but they just want to be guided and seen towards their goals, that’s why I do what I do but I dont have the “Keys” or the “Authority” to even give these boys a shot. I am here to try and put them in front of the guys that do and the Pathways “GateKeepers” and HOPE they get seen. The NZSS and NZ Barbarians Coaches have no real say they are just told to coach, Selectors don’t really have a say they are just given direction and so whoever does have the say please clear this up for the players today and to those that will come through 1st XV Rugby over the years.
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