Where are our ABs?
Stuff’s Moohoo series investigates decline of Waikato players in the All Blacks
The flood of home-grown talent from Waikato making waves in New Zealand has hardly been bursting the banks of professional rugby in the last decade.
Since 2009, Tawera Kerr-Barlow is the only player from Waikato to have earned his first call-up to the All Blacks.
After yesterday’s All Blacks squad announcement, it could be some time before that changes and Kerr-Barlow’s recent departure to France means Waikato’s representation in the All Blacks is limited to players first recruited to the union’s academy.
Atu Moli (2017), Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown (both 2016) and Brad Weber (2015) were all Mooloos when making their respective debuts in the fabled black jersey, and have flourished in Waikato, but none are from the region.
Waikato has a history of players on the fringes – legendary Mooloos flanker Duane Monkley is widely considered the best player never to become an All Black – but after 13 from the region earned first-time callups from 2000 to 2009, only Kerr Barlow has made the grade since.
The now La Rochelle halfback’s school, Hamilton Boys’ High, is one of New Zealand’s most successful schoolboy teams, which has won four First XV national championships since 2008 and been Super 8 winners in 10 of the last 12 seasons.
But Waikato’s best talent has then been falling off the map and a serious lack of player development has been a massive issue.
When New Zealand’s five Super Rugby franchises revealed their 38-man squads for 2018 last November, only Southland (four) had a worse representation of their Mitre 10 Cup players than the Mooloos (six), and that followed Waikato’s worst-ever campaign.
And Waikato’s representation in the Chiefs this season is paltry. Their squad number has ballooned to 50 because of injuries, but only a handful of Waikato-bred players – Luke Jacobson (Cambridge), Declan O’Donnell (Hamilton) and Mitchell Graham (Matamata) – are in the mix, as well as Tongan Samisoni Taukei’aho, who was schooled at St Paul’s Collegiate.
The pathway of old from Waikato into the Chiefs has evidently declined, despite the region’s success in junior grades.
Luke Jacobson captained New Zealand’s under-20s side to last year’s world title in Georgia and Waikato has remained well represented at that level, while the union’s under-19s team has been the most successful in the annual Jock Hobbs Memorial tournament in Taupo since its inception in 2014.
But Waikato’s home-grown players are then falling away.
The changing face of rugby in the professional era has caused knock-on effects that have posed serious challenges for the Waikato Rugby Union (WRU).
CEO Blair Foote said the WRU was still $1 million in debt and losing players was unfortunately inevitable given the union’s well-documented financial struggles.
‘‘It has an impact on what we can actually spend on the professional players, but I think our ability to develop players hasn’t been compromised.
‘‘The challenge is getting those players into a position where they can take that final step.’’
Sharing Hamilton with the Chiefs is also not as beneficial for Waikato as it was when the likes of Liam Messam joined Waikato’s academy from Rotorua Boys’ High in 2003. Todd Miller was fullback for both until retiring in 2004.
‘‘When I played in the Chiefs, we [the squad] were 90 per cent from Waikato, but that’s changed,’’ he said.
‘‘The Chiefs have got better, and
‘‘We, unfortunately, haven’t been able to push some of our players’ cases hard enough.’’
Marty Holah, former Waikato All Black
maybe Waikato have suffered because of that, but so be it.’’
Former Chiefs and Waikato flanker Marty Holah is the last Hamilton-born player to have become an All Black (2001) and with the Chiefs now reaching out to Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki, Waikato’s players face added competition locally, and nationally, as Super Rugby franchises compete with one another to recruit the country’s best talent from schools and provincial academies.
‘‘The relationship that Waikato’s had with the Chiefs through that period [since 2009] has probably not been as strong as it traditionally was,’’ said Holah, WRU’s vice-president, who coaches at Hamilton Marist.
‘‘I’m not accusing the Chiefs of anything because they’re just picking the best players possible. We, unfortunately, haven’t been able to push some of our players’ cases hard enough.’’
The new collective employment agreement in 2010 freed Super Rugby franchises to sign players regardless of which province they played for and Waikato can face pressure to take a player from outside their borders – like teenage centre Bailyn Sullivan.
But the success of schools like Hamilton Boys’ High hasn’t translated to many elite rugby players still in New Zealand.
First XV coach Nigel Hotham said too many of Waikato’s academy places are not being awarded to local players.
‘‘I’ve discussed before the fact that it is a concern, with the strength of our school teams, that academy places are taken by boys from other areas.’’
Waikato (62) has produced the sixth most All Blacks from the provinces in history, but the river of talent from the Waikato has stopped flowing into black.