Golden generation on rise in South JOHN LESLIE
Hayden Meikle
It has been some sort of year for the Leslie family.
John, the Otago great and former Scottish international, coached Southern to an upset win in the Dunedin club final and has just guided Otago under19 to the South Island championship.
Son and neardoppelganger Jack was a key player in that Magpies team that won the banner and, last Sunday, followed his dad into Otago colours when he made his NPC debut in Wellington, roughly a year after helping the Bush Pigs win the first of backtoback New Zealand under85kg titles.
Leslie senior has seen most things in rugby but can still get an absolute thrill out of seeing a bunch of young players come together and form a winning unit.
His Otago under19s went unbeaten, and victory in the ultimate clash with Canterbury was particularly sweet.
‘‘They are a really good bunch of lads with plenty of talent, and a really good team spirit. Just boys who came together well and played hard.
‘‘You can have talent but it doesn’t always work.’’
Leslie thinks the southern rugby nursery — not all the players originated from here, of course, but the outsiders are getting some formative coaching and experiences — is looking as healthy as ever.
From his squad, loose forwards Will Stodart and Semisi Tupou Taeiloa, first five Ajay Faleafaga and wunderkind Finn Hurley have made the New Zealand under19 team.
‘‘I’d like to think we had another two or three who were considered for selection too,’’ Leslie said.
‘‘That’s a really good bunch in there. It can be hard to tell at that age but there are definitely some players in there who will go on to play rugby at a very high level.
‘‘It’s as much about character as skill set. That really does count. It’s about the person as much as the rugby player.’’
‘‘Our biggest one is making sure all of our young rugby players want to stay within our region.
‘‘What’s really important is that if there is an opportunity, and the right person within our region is here, we make sure that position can be filled from within our region.
‘‘If he’s a Highlanders man, from Southland or North Otago or Otago Country or Dunedin, we must be really proactive to make sure that opportunity exists.
‘‘And from a Highlanders point of view, we just have that laserlike focus on positions of need within our club for the next four to five years.’’
Talented youngsters were targeted by other Super Rugby clubs so the Highlanders had to make it clear they did not need to leave to flourish, Jury said.
There were good opportunities in rugby, tertiary education and apprenticeships in the region.
Jury is delighted the provincial unions have been running a full under18 programme to augment first XV seasons.
That tournament culminates in finals day next weekend, after which a junior Highlanders team will play the baby Crusaders in Pleasant Point on October 4.
‘‘I just want to see them continue to develop. We’ve got a chunk of boys going to Lincoln, some are staying in Dunedin, some are heading rural. So it will be interesting to see how they all develop.
‘‘There are some really good prospects within our team. As they physically develop, I reckon they’ll be a real handful.’’
Lundy thinks the Otago Schools Rugby Championship was perfectly fine preparation to play powerful schools like Nelson College (South Island final) and Hamilton Boys’ (top four).
McGlashan had to fight hard to beat local rivals Southland
Boys’, King’s and Otago Boys’, and there was not a lot between the four teams.
‘‘I think it was a really, really strong competition this year. Any of those four teams could have given Nelson a really good crack and carried on.
‘‘There’s some real depth in schoolboy rugby down here. Every time we played Southland, and we played them three times, the game was close and really physical. They’ve got some huge talent.
‘‘I think there’s plenty of good boys right across the region.’’
The key now was keeping the young fellows involved in rugby, Lundy said.
He likes the fact McGlashan tries to keep rugby in perspective and, unlike some of the glamour schools up north, does not overprofessionalise the sport.
‘‘For us to compete at that very top level, we would have needed to take a semiprofessional approach and train a whole lot more.
‘‘But I really like the fact that we had players in our team who still played hockey or basketball. That’s great. I don’t think having a rugby academy or a semifulltime approach to high school rugby is really sustainable longterm.’’