Young star’s move to St Kents a bombshell
The boycott of St Kentigern College’s first XV rugby team has extended with the central North Island’s Super Eight schools refusing to play the Auckland school.
Ten Auckland schools had already bandied together to shun St Kents because of a recruitment policy they feel is unethical in bolstering their playing stocks. That has effectively seen St Kents locked out of competing in next year’s Auckland 1A competition.
But if they were to look for games a little further south, they are out of luck because, after hearing of the boycott up north, all sides in the Super Eight competition have supported that move, following a meeting in the past couple of days.
The Super Eight is a competitive league comprising Hamilton Boys’ High School, Palmerston North Boys’ High School, Hastings Boys’ High School, Rotorua Boys’ High School, New Plymouth Boys’ High School, Gisborne Boys’ High School, Napier Boys’ High School and Tauranga Boys’ College.
While those teams wouldn’t normally come up against St Kents during a season, if they were approached for a game they would all be declining the offer.
It’s understood their refusal to play will mirror however long those Auckland schools continue their boycott.
‘‘As a Super Eight entity we’ve unanimously agreed to support A decision by St Kentigern College to recruit rugby star Isaiah Punivai from a private school in Christchurch appears to make a mockery of David Hodge’s statement that boys move to the Auckland school for a superior education.
Punivai, who captained the Christ’s College 1st XV and was selected for the New Zealand secondary schools team in 2017, left Christchurch after he was offered a rugby scholarship by St Kentigern this year.
A centre, who last season scored a try that was voted as broadcaster Sky’s fan try of the year, Punivai was a valued member of the St Kentigern 1st XV in the 1A competition in Auckland. This year he also captained the our Auckland counterparts,’’ Palmerston North Boys’ High School rector David Bovey said.
‘‘If they were looking for fixtures, we wouldn’t play them.’’
While he said it was disappointing something like this had happened, Bovey felt it was a good thing people were now talking about it.
‘‘There’s been rumours going around about what this school’s been doing and what that school’s been doing. I’m hoping what comes out of this is that some New Zealand secondary schools side, and was joined by four teammates from the St Kentigern 1st XV in a squad coached by Crusaders assistant coach Brad Mooar.
Punivai had attended Christ’s College, a private school in schools change the way we’re doing things.’’
Gisborne Boys’ High principal Andrew Turner said they were ‘‘keen to support a fairer, more transparent, egalitarian system’’.
‘‘It’s fair to say the landscape of 1st XV rugby’s changed in the last five to 10 years. As traditional boys schools, we’re just saying ‘hey, there’s got to be some lines in the sand’.
‘‘We’re not the United States of America, we don’t have massive pools of kids and money and all Christchurch, since he was a year nine student. After the 2017 rugby calendar had closed, he dropped a bombshell by declaring he was moving to Auckland to attend St Kentigern for his final school year.
It’s understood Christ’s College, the other rubbish. We’re New Zealand, and we’ve survived for a long time and put ourselves at the top of the rugby world just by having homegrown talent.’’
For Tauranga Boys’ principal Robert Mangan, the matter is one which hits close to home.
‘‘Being a school that has lost up-and-coming players at different levels of rugby, it’s good that they have been called out on the issue,’’ he said.
His latest example is Carlos Price, who was in the Tauranga whose 1st XV is coached by former All Blacks captain Reuben Thorne, felt they could do little to retain Punivai.
Earlier this week, St Kentigern head Hodge was adamant his school has done nothing wrong. Hodge said that St Kentigern had been wrongly accused of poaching players: ‘‘We don’t recruit players because we don’t need to.
‘‘It’s quite clear that the reason that so many young boys and their families want to come to St Kentigern is because of the quality of the education that they get here,’’ Hodge told Radio Sport.
Hodge’s remarks are unlikely to gain much traction from those loyal to Christ’s College, a wellestablished private school that boasts it provides students with a quality education.
Punivai’s move to Auckland was complicated by having St Kentigern’s College have secured an unlikely ally after being shunned by 10 Auckland schools due to their recruitment policy.
All Blacks wing Rieko Ioane, who played for Auckland Grammar – one of the schools refusing to play St Kents – took to social media to back the under-fire school.
‘‘I’ve seen it all now, just because they recruit doesn’t mean you pull the plug,’’ Ioane wrote on Instagram.
‘‘Don’t run from the competition, if you wanna be the best, you beat the best. St Kents make first XV competition harder, but it makes it better when you beat them.’’
1st XV in Year 11, before moving on to St Kents for his final two years of school. He now plays for Wellington in the Mitre 10 Cup, has represented New Zealand Under-20s and is in the Hurricanes’ wider setup.
Bovey said the lack of perspective people had around school sport was ‘‘disturbing’’.
‘‘People are competitive and we all want our kids to do well and have the opportunity to compete at a high level. But I think some have sold their soul to do it.
‘‘The kids who have worked their backsides off from year nine and finally get their chance in the senior school, and your place has been taken by a kid who’s come in for one year, I just think that’s palpably unfair.’’ already signed a contract with the Canterbury provincial union, and had told the Crusaders he will attend their academy next year.
Despite representing St Kentigern in Auckland, Punivai, who turns 19 in January, still captained the Crusaders under-18 team this season which required him to commute between the north and south islands. The teenager is considered too young to sign a contract with the Crusaders.
Punivai’s decision to enrol at St Kentigern was not greeted with unbridled joy by some other 1st XV coaches in Canterbury. Among their concerns were that it could send mixed messages to other teenagers who may have been tempted to sign rugby scholarships with other schools outside the region.
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