Northland Rugby
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@Nath-Jac yeah I understand why they do it, but it puts undue pressure on the clubs when they are struggling for numbers anyway.
YOur idea makes sense, but with everything geared toward the Prem side, I doubt it'd get off the ground as they wouldnt have prems playing at 12.30 or reserves k/o at 4pm.
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@taniwharugby said in Northland vs BOP:
@mohikamo said in Northland vs BOP:
Whangarei BHS to North Harbour is a good move.
I pretty much agree with what you have said, except probably this part, while I am not against it as it is good for WBHS, I also feel this has affected the 1st 15 comp in Whangarei and Northland.
I know it is years ago now, but when I played 1st 15, there were guys from all over Northland that went on to play professional rugby and league, some right to the highest level, but Northland wide, the comp was strong, even if we still got dusted up by bigger (physically) Auckland schools more often than not, not alot changed there.
My understanding is NRU had been looking at trying to push kids back into schools for thier rugby and away from clubs (there is part of me that agrees, part that disagrees with this) however the only way this works is if they in turn force WBHS to come back and play locally, which in itself would create an issue, particularly the furst few years until other schools got thier programs back and improved.
That said, how many parents of kids at WBHS would then send thier kids to an Auckland school for that bigger exposure?
Plenty of Northland kids end up in the Auckland school system, some go in year 9, some year 10 and others later, and you know some will thrive in the environment playing a higher level week in week out.
Are a few names I will be watching in the future though, if they stick with it, they will play provincial rugby for sure and maybe higher again.
The problem with the WBHS 1stXV in a Northland Comp was competition. I was in the Sports Dept when this was going through, and all that NRU could organise was 5 Wednesday afternoon games, the other schools were struggling to get a 1st XV, and WBHS wouldn't have any 2nd XV games (no comp). Now Our 2nd XV plays vs the other schools, with top ups from the 1sts, and is competitive. The major problem with all this was other schools struggling for players.
But best thing for the individual is go to a big AKL school, but WBHS in NH is perfect for the school. The competition level is right, and we get our 2nds playing as well.
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@Machpants yeah appreciate all that, but as I said, from what I gather NRU is trying to push the rugby side of things back on schools, but without WBHS I dont think that can ever happen successfully...and I cant see WBHS wanting to come back into the local comp.
I mean Kamo High is a good example, they have an ex Northland dev team Coach, a current Northland Dev team player and an ex-Northland/Waikato player on thier staff and they dont have a 1st 15 program (well nothing significant that I am aware of anyway)
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@taniwharugby that was a cool initiative with the 14 year old teams. Like to see that sort of thing with a bit more structure for the boys from 14 - 18, not too young.
The question I have about school boy rugby in Northland is what are the NRU doing? When I played in Waikato ( after being brought up playing club rugby in Northland ) I got the sense of tradition and how important school rugby was. Long time ago now but is sounds like nothing has changed back home. It we can’t create the tradition, maybe they create a sub union level competition?
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@kev as I said above, they were sounding clubs out about pushing things back to school, but not sure how that would look.
I mean this season there were 8 U14 teams, MId Northern, Marist, Kamo, City, Tikpunga, Northern Wairoa, Otamatea and Hora Hora...
so thats 6 teams in Whangarei, how do they push that many back into Boys HIgh and Kamo, without going down the 'elite' type scenario they are trying to avoid these days?
PLus, if kids leave clubs (as the odd ones are forced to do depending on age/weights) it detracts from fostering strong ties to clubs.
As above, there is no U15 grade for the kids to move into next year, straight to U16, Marist already fell apart in U14 this year, no idea what has happened to those boys.
I know Kamo will probably struggle to field an U16 team due to half thier team being small enough to play U14 again next year, and some parents already indicated that they would keep thier boys down.
City were pretty well resourced, although I think they have had a couple of thier better players head to Auckland schools, Mid NOrthern will be lucky in that half thier team this year were the older kids under the weight limit to stay down this year, so they should all move through to U16 easily enough.
Apparently there were 4 teams in the NOrth Zone, Kaitaia, Aupori, Te Rarawa and KeriKeri so played one another 4 times.
Apparently one option next year is to open it up NOrthland wide for U16, where there will be 10 teams at best, probably 9 as I reckon Tikipunga will drop out too.
For me, U14 and U16 are hugely important, these are the ages kids are dropping out and the one NZR and all these sports administrators are saying we need to do more to keep involved, but I dont know how, and neither do anyone else I dont think.
TR JNr has said if he doesnt grow much over summer (and is too big to stay in U14) he wont be playing U16....so he might not be leaving for the reasons of elitism and so on we keep hearing, but it is still a reason why other kids leave...although I think he will be fine and end up playing
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@taniwharugby to be honest I prefer the Club rugby setup. More inclusive and less elite.
But those drop offs in numbers are huge. Do the boys play touch during summer? Keep them with the club and in the system. That’s the way we need to think. Keep them in contact with the club ( sports club rather just rugby club ) building skills and fitness for life. A broad base will give the best results.
I always played weight restricted rugby at club level, didn’t play in 6th form, then first fifteen, didn’t play at varsity, then played under 77kgs in Auckland rugby which is now under 85kg. Our team played touch during summer and then morphed into cricket when we got older. But that grade kept me in rugby, sport etc.
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@Machpants At the end of the day sport should be fun. All the kids should want to participate just because of that. What is sports participation like now in schools? I know devices have changed all our habits, and work pushing into weekends and nights for parents means less time for structured community activities like clubs.
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I'm not too worried about this season. We've had absolutely rotten luck with injuries since pre season. A smaller province like us is always going to struggle with such a big injury list. The long term upside to so many injuries is that more guys get a crack so potentially better depth for the future. Guys like Stokes, Caird, Mayavanua, Atkins, McNamara, Byrnes etc have all played way bigger roles than probably expected of them and Matiu has had a breakout season.
I still think despite all the injuries this season if we had a functioning midfield we would have performed so much better. Hohaia tries hard but is probably better suited to the B team. Johnson will hopefully never play another game for Northland again. You could handle all his basic errors, missed tackles, handling errors etc if he was putting in 100%. Hard to believe he even got close to a S15 gig let alone had a season at the Blues. When he gets beaten in defence (as often happens) he makes absolutely no effort to get back and help in support or try and make up for it. The Manawatu game was telling - gaping holes in midfield defence and instead of chasing back he would just stroll back yet guys like Atkins and McNamara are chasing back basically on his behalf.
I think if we had stopped persisting with Gregory at 15 and put him at 12 we would have had a much better season. He would have offered a much bigger threat in midfield with ball in hand, would've created more time and space for J Deb and would've strengthened the defence. If he gets left to settle at 12 he will become one of the best in NZ. He's best suited to that position - can probably cover the outside backs if needed but doesn't have the pace to dominate as an outside back.
The backs (midfield) have really let the forward pack down this season. The forwards have battled bloody hard all season.
