Stance on recruitment smacks of hypocrisy

SOUNDS like sour grapes to me in Nick Cain’s piece entitled “Schools in moral row” in which he described how a coalition of ten Auckland Schools have thrown St. Kentigern out of the 2019 First XV competition for recruiting five players from other schools to their senior squad.

A number of independent schools across Eastern Counties whom we play against actively recruit players from neighbouring counties and schools to join at Year 9 or 12 on sports scholarships.

Some schools even reach out overseas to places as far afield as Kenya and South Africa to bring players into their programmes.

Everybody does it, Northern and Southern Hemisphere. The New Zealand Schools seeking to take the moral high ground have probably just been outbid with what they can offer as incentives and scholarships in comparison to St. Kentigern.

Looking further up the food chain, the All Blacks have for years put together the type of financial packages that attract and secure the cream of the Polynesian youth from the islands of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga to enter their representative system.

While World Rugby stand idly by not compensating or protecting the Island Unions from this drain of players, it appears that the New Zealand’s school community is seeking to take a stand, albeit for their own self interest.

So perhaps what’s good for the goose may not be good for the gander after all!