Former AB backs St Kents

Former All Black Jerome Kaino has voiced his support for former school St Kentigern College in the row over schoolboy rugby ‘poaching’.

Kaino attended the school in 2000-2001 and said it had provided him, and others, with the chance to reach their potential.

‘‘People like myself, John Afoa, Joe Rokocoko [and you will know others] would possibly never have achieved what we have without the opportunity presented by St Kentigern College, and that’s the same for many other young men given by other schools along the way,’’ Kaino wrote on Instagram.

‘‘If the rules of today don’t fit, then surely sit around a table and work them out to retain the integrity of the competition,’’ he wrote.

Kaino is not the only high-profile player to weigh in on the controversy, with All Blacks wing Rieko Ioane, who played for Auckland Grammar, also backing the under-fire school.

‘‘I’ve seen it all now, just because they recruit doesn’t mean you pull the plug,’’ Ioane wrote on Instagram. ‘‘Don’t run from the competition, if you wanna be the best, you beat the best. St Kents make first XV competition harder, but it makes it better when you beat them.’’