The missing link a

THE Auckland region’s woes with first five-eighths are well known, but in 2017 they may have hit a new low.

Across the five New Zealand Super Rugby teams, there are no first-fives who went to high school in Auckland, home of the 1A first XV competition widely regarded as the best in the world at that level.

There are 14 in total – two from the Chiefs region (Stephen Donald and Beauden Barrett), five from the Hurricanes region (Aaron Cruden, Ihaia West, Lima Sopoaga, Otere Black and Stephen Perofeta), five from the Crusaders region (Damian McKenzie, Fletcher Smith, Marty McKenzie, Mitch Hunt and Richie Mo’unga), one from the Highlanders region (Hayden Parker), and Piers Francis, who came here from England as an 18-year-old.

Even when you add Marty Banks (Christchurch Boys’ – Crusaders) and Bryn Gatland (Hamilton Boys’ – Chiefs) who have both been called up as injury replacements, and Wharenui Hawera (St Peter’s, Cambridge – Chiefs) and Jackson Garden-Bachop (Scots College – Hurricanes), who play for the Brumbies and Rebels, there are still none out of Auckland.

To an extent, it is a statistical quirk, but it is still a notable one. Schools in the Blues region were responsible for producing 52 of the 190 New Zealand Super Rugby players, more than any other region, and for there not be one first-five among them is unusual.

In fact, if you take the players from the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, and Crusaders regions and look to select a team from each of them (the Highlanders region has only produced nine players), there are options available at every position from every area, except to fill the No 10 jersey at the Blues.

But while the present is bleak, the future seems bright. Matt McGahan and Simon Hickey are both a decent chance of making it back to Super Rugby at some point, while there are also three recent graduates from Auckland schools who are highly-rated prospects.

Two are in the Auckland provincial academy programme right now – Auckland Grammar’s Wiseguy Faiane from the class of 2015, and St Peter’s College’s Harry Plummer from the class of 2016 – while another 2016 player, Ciarahn Matoe of King’s College, is with Taranaki.

The Auckland academy high performance manager, Ben Meyer, said there had definitely been some gaps over the years in terms of players coming out of local high schools, but that it was largely a cyclical problem.

It’s clear Meyer laments the way Hickey in particular was rushed through the system, to the point where he was unwanted by Super Rugby teams and looking overseas as a 21-year-old.

‘‘I remember he went into the Blues as a wider training group player and in round two he was starting against the Crusaders and a few games later he was spat out,’’ Meyer said. ‘‘And that’s just poor player management, and