An academy of excellence
"We've worked really hard on that, saying to the boys 'you know what you're going to have here, it's a safe environment'."
Chris Pollock
Something had to change at Hastings Boys’ High School after their first XV went without a win between 2006 and
2011 in the Super 8 competition – the premier first XV rugby competition for boys’ schools in Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay and Bay of Plenty.
That change would be an academy at year-nine and 10 level, the brainchild of former director of rugby Tony McBride.
These days its aim is to ‘‘provide aspiring young rugby players with the opportunity to combine professional training with their academic studies’’. And it has worked.
Over time, the HBHS first XV has improved to the point where it has lost only one game since the start of
2016. That was the national championship game that year, but they avenged that loss in 2017 by claiming their first national title.
With that success came a bit of finger pointing from some people. HBHS had seven year-14s in their squad, while they also imported players from the Pacific Islands, most notably winger Kini Naholo, the brother of All Black Waisake Naholo, who scored 40 tries in 20 games in 2017.
Former international referee Chris Pollock was HBHS director of sport for almost four years before he left at the end of last week.
He said last year’s unbeaten first XV was a special group of players.
‘‘We had seven year-14s, six of which were young year 14s, still under 18 at the start of the year and eligible for the New Zealand Secondary Schools (NZSS) team.
‘‘To highlight how special a group they were last year, we had seven make the final NZ secondary schools team and we also had two that were probably going to make it but got injured at camp. Nine in a squad of 23 from one school kind of shows you how special that group was.’’
While earning selection for the NZSS team was a big motivator for the year 14s to come back, Pollock said six of the seven were also there to earn university entrance or complete NCEA level three.
Pollock was very open about the recruitment of Pacific Islands players.
‘‘We don’t have a hostel, but each year we get between two and three overseas players. We homestay those guys. The last couple of years we had Waisake Naholo’s brother out of Fiji, two Tongan guys, at the moment I think there are three Fijians.
‘‘You can only play two in your first XV at any one time. So we always try to go two in year 13 and one in year 12, so the one in year 12 will come in at year 13 and potentially get in at year 13.’’
But they weren’t recruiting players within New Zealand, which was becoming a big issue.
‘‘We are a very different school, compared to – and I’m not having a shot at them – King’s [College] and Saint Kent’s, who can offer things that we’d never be able to offer to some families that come from some pretty disadvantaged backgrounds.
The last player HBHS lost to another school was Ajay Mua, who left for King’s in 2015.
Pollock said that was because they had created an environment where players didn’t want, or feel the need, to leave.
‘‘We’ve worked really hard on that, saying to the boys ‘you know what you’re going to have here, it’s a safe environment’’
That all started back at the academy where the core values of ‘‘teamwork, work ethic, discipline and respect’’ were drummed into them.
The values they are taught at that early age should help better prepare the players for the quick jump into the professional game.
Pollock said 12-15 players in the first XV last year had agents. They needed them too, because six went on to sign contracts with Hawke’s Bay, two went to Bay of Plenty and couple of others signed development contracts.
‘‘Guys that are leaving school are going straight into provincial union contracts.’’