School sport: Schools keenly await battle of codes

The Super 8 sporting and cultural exchange between the top boys' schools in the central North Island has dramatically increased the standards in all codes and activities, plus raised the level of expectation among participating schools.

The boys' schools involved in the event are Tauranga, Rotorua, Napier, Gisborne, Hastings, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Hamilton.

The sports involved are rugby (First and Second XVs), golf, cross country, clay target shooting, badminton, tennis, football, hockey and cricket.

It all started in 1996, the year rugby turned professional, and the most significant development at schoolboy level originated at Rotorua Boys'. Headmaster Chris Grinter called a meeting to discuss a bold new concept to try and close the gap between the traditional boys' schools and competitions in Auckland and Wellington.

In 1998 the first rugby and cricket competitions began and soon Super 8 blossomed to include the sports contested today.

Tauranga Boys' College director of sport, Darrell Boyd, says the impact of Super 8 on the school has been huge across the codes.

"Let's look at rugby first. It is arguably the strongest rugby competition to be involved in and the Second XV is also involved. It helps build culture as you all travel on one bus, so the seconds are always with the firsts, and that's hugely important."

Cricket is another sport that has benefited dramatically by the high standard of competition.

"Traditionally those schools like Napier, Palmerston North and Hamilton are strong cricketing schools and the games are played in January, and are lead-up games to the Gillette Cup qualifying games."

Boyd says because of the high standard across the codes boys gravitate to the competition.

This year the format has changed to enable different sports to be played at the same time to further increase the festival spirit.

"In the first three days of term three we have football, basketball and hockey all in the Hawke's Bay. We also clustered volleyball, golf and tennis in Gisborne this year."