The secret behind the All Blacks
The respect, the toughness, the skill, the attitude... it all starts at school
ACOUPLE of hundred spectators gathered around a muddy, windswept pitch in Miramar, a suburb of Wellington, and watched as the boys of the 1st XV of Scots College, an independent, well-to-do Presbyterian school whose pupils wear red and grey blazers, strode out to the accompaniment of bagpipes and cheers.
In front of them stood their opponents, the boys of Rongotai College, the underdogs. The senior Rongotai boys strode forward towards their opponents and placed their caps down on the ground before they began their haka. And when it was over, they went into a crouch, staring unblinkingly at the Scots College lads as they did their own war dance.
Rongotai has a proud rugby tradition. It has produced nine All Blacks, most recently Ma’a Nonu, and Julian and Ardie Savea, who are in the squad facing the British and Irish Lions. Ardie was head boy in 2011. Demographic issues mean the school has shrunk dramatically in numbers and is fighting to maintain its status among the elite of New Zealand schools rugby and stay near the summit of the top local school league, the WelTec Premiership.
Even in the conditions, some of the running rugby was outstanding, particularly from Scots. The ambition of both teams was never dulled by the conditions or the rain that fell from the leaden skies.
In front of the clubhouse, they cooked sausages on a barbeque. A ‘sausage sizzle’, they called it. After the game, there were festivities in the school hall and an auction for two tickets for the second All Blacks-Lions Test.
They called it a ‘post-match celebration’. Notwithstanding the subsequent shock defeat to the Lions, they seem to be doing quite a lot of that in New Zealand sport right now.
After their entry beat its American opponent to yachting’s premier trophy last week, a local coffee company took billboard space in central Wellington that asked: ‘Another cup, anybody?’
An article in Wellington’s Dominion Post last week bore the headline: ‘It’s party time in our own little world’ and highlighted that victory in the America’s Cup, the feats of the All Blacks and achievements in track cycling, netball and rowing.
‘New Zealand is so good at sport,’ the author wrote, ‘it’s as if the whole country is one big trophy cabinet with a few volcanos, mountains and national parks to take up the rest of the space.’
Ahead of everything is pride in rugby. You could feel it in the pain of the defeat yesterday and the determination to put it right in Auckland next Saturday. You could feel it in the shock of a rare loss.
When you get to the kernel of it, there is a beauty about the intensity of the commitment to rugby in New Zealand that makes it special. Watching the game between Rongotai and Scots was sport at its most vital.
Sometimes, it feels as if we have become squeamish about expecting that level of desire and commitment in young sportsmen and women. We have become too concerned with congratulating ourselves on how empathetic, analytical and holistic we have become. We have allowed hunger’s sharp edges to become rounded.
At Rongotai College, head rugby coach, Dave Meaclem, holds training sessions on Monday and Wednesday at 6.30am for the 1st XV squad that he calls the Culture Club. Like a lot of what they do, it tests commitment.
‘For the ones who live outside the city,’ says Meaclem, ‘we leave it up to them to solve the problem of getting in on time. If they don’t turn up, they don’t get picked.
‘They say: “Sir, I can’t make it in because I live in Porirua,” which is 30kms away. And that’s fine, but then you don’t get picked. We know it’s hard. We want them to do hard. We want them to know what hard is. We want them to be able to formulate plans around what hard is so they can make it easy.’
Would we do that? Maybe. Or would we think it was unfair? Would we think it was discriminatory? Would we seek to make excuses for the kids who said they couldn’t make it in? Would we fuss and complain?
At Rongotai College, the hunger for rugby is in your face. They are not embarrassed about it. They want academic achievement too, of course, and they want humility from the members of their 1st XV but they are smart enough to use the passion for rugby to help drive good study habits.
In the school entrance hall, there is a display case with pictures of the nine All Blacks the school has produced in its 89-year history: RH Horsley, Mick Williment, GC Williams, Clive Currie, Brian McGrattan, Ofisa Tonu’u, Nonu and the Savea brothers.
The names give you an idea of how the school has embraced the influx of Pacific Islanders into New Zealand and allowed their sublime rugby talents to help shape the way the game is played at the school.
Nineteen of Rongotai’s 1st XV 23-man squad are players of Polynesian heritage.
The college has not sought to make these talents conform to an old way of playing the game. They have chosen instead to use their arrival as an opportunity to change and evolve and improve.
That display case, principal Kevin Carter says, illustrates a ‘world of change’ as well as underlining how schools remain at the centre of sport.
‘Sport has a prominent part in our schools,’ says Carter. ‘It’s what makes New Zealand sport what it is. It suggests to young people that you are representing someone all the time. It’s not just about you. There are 660 other kids in our school who are behind you and looking at everything you do.
‘It means we can reinforce messages on a daily basis. We have attendance criteria. If you have not achieved 90 per cent attendance, you will not be playing in our senior teams. We can reinforce all those strong messages about being good young men that former All Blacks coach Graham Henry has brought to the fore. He was a school teacher, don’t forget.’
That’s what they do in New Zealand rugby: they teach, learn, adapt and prosper. Defeat by the Lions has stung them. Don’t bet on it happening twice in succession.
Training is at 6.30am and, if they don’t turn up, then they don’t get picked