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There is again a two- pronged approach to the New Zealand Schools programme for this season, writes CAMPBELL BURNES.
There is no mucking around this year. After two seasons where the NZ Schools team was only selected from senior, Year 13 students, the rules have been relaxed to allow for Year 12 ( or even Year 11) students, should they be good enough.
The previous stringent criteria backfired in 2012 when NZ Schools lost at home to Australia while the second tier NZ Barbarians Schools, with several players who should have been promoted, beat Australia.
Last year, NZ Schools were shocked by Fiji in Australia, but bounced back to win the transTasman test with a late try by flanker Dillon Wihongi, converted by Damian McKenzie, which gave the Kiwis a narrow 17- 16 victory. The NZ Barbarians Schools played one, low- key, match, in Auckland, but are fully integrated into the programme this year.
New Zealand Rugby’s high performance player development manager Mike Anthony, explains the shift in thinking: “We made a recommendation to the NZ Secondary Schools Rugby council and we are going to pick on merit. Historically, I understood the reasons behind it, giving kids one year in the jersey and giving others the opportunity.
“But we are now seeing that some of these boys are being fast- tracked quickly. We are now saying that if some of these kids are good enough in Year 12, let’s get them in there. It’s sometimes about how these guys go in the second year of the programme. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are that much better.”
Anthony and his talent scouting team, led by former Crusaders hooker and Southern Kings coach Matt Sexton, have been hard at work tracking the talent up and down the country, be it live or on the Rugby Channel.
“We don’t miss too many,” declared Anthony, who oversees a closer relationship between the NZ Schools and NZ Under 20 programmes, which saw a handful of the 2013 schools team appear in June’s Junior World Championship.
At the time of writing, the NZ Schools coach had not been appointed. While this is far from an ideal scenario, Anthony says it is not a cause for concern.
“We’re not far off. That’s part of our strategy that we’ve been working on. The coach will have limited input anyway into the selection process,” he says.
New Zealand will be out to turn the tables on Fijian Schools when they meet on September 30 in Porirua. But the focus is always the annual test for the TransTasman Shield, down for October 4. Australia has had the wood on New Zealand in recent years.
“Talking to the Australian guys, they felt that was one of the strongest Australian teams for many years in 2013, so that was a significant win for New Zealand. We want to be able to repeat that result, especially at home,” says Anthony.
The Bronze Boot is also up for grabs in the transTasman test for the best player from each side in the match. In 2013 New Zealand No 8 Akira Ioane clinched the honour and is now starring for the New Zealand Sevens side, while 2012 recipient, lock James Tucker, out of St Bede’s College, is in the Waikato ITM Cup squad after a promising Junior World Championship campaign with the New Zealand Under 20s.
The franchise Under 18 sides assembled in the July school holidays. Fifty players will be selected after September’s Top 4 tournament in Rotorua, and then split into the two New Zealand teams for
the international programme.