All Black captains in bid to save the game

CONCERNED: Former All Black captain Ian Kirkpatrick, pictured at the time of his election as patron of the New Zealand Rugby Union, is worried about the future of the national game. Gisborne Herald file picture by Paul Rickard

Rugby great Ian Kirkpatrick is one of eight former All Blacks who have banded together to “save” the game.

He says the drive to play defensive rugby and the emphasis on body size is unappealing to both potential players and spectators.

“The physicality is putting off so many players,” he said.

“It can't go on.”

The drive to professionalise the game had trickled down through the grades, said Kirkpatrick, who also captained Poverty Bay through most of the 1970s.

The focus had shifted from ball running to having big strong players continually running the ball at a “brick wall” and it had gone on for too long.

“The main problem is at the breakdown,” he said.

“It doesn't require the forwards to go in, and they fan out to create a blockade. It's so structured now.”

Kirkpatrick said one model the rest of the country could follow was Gisborne Boys' High School's Courage Cup competition that started last year.

It is an under-15 league that ran on Wednesdays. Participation and “playing with your friends” were the primary goals.

The group to which Kirkpatrick belongs is led by Wellington businessman Douglas Catley. It includes All Black captains Kirkpatrick, Alex Wyllie (also a former All Black coach), Andy Leslie, Dave Loveridge and Stu Wilson, as well as former All Blacks Allan Hewson, Earle Kirton (also an All Black selector and assistant coach) and Mark Shaw.

Others include Ken Douglas, Member of the Order of New Zealand and former trade union leader and New Zealand Rugby Union board member; and rugby commentator and former prominent league player Ken Laban.

Catley ran adverts in newspapers across the country encouraging people to voice their opinion. He says the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Everyone's been echoing the deep concerns we have . . . as one submitter said, ‘If you don't succeed it will go into extinction'.

“The solution in my mind is for the (New Zealand Rugby) board to restructure, so it's an administrator of the amateur game.”

Despite the “mammoth” task, Catley said it's “just something that needs to be done, and someone needs to do it”.

The New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council census showed a 12 percent drop in participation rates among school rugby players from 2016 to 2020, a decrease of 3200 players.

In 1980 Gisborne had eight senior teams, 11 teams in the senior reserves, 10 teams in the under-21 division, 10 u19 teams and 19 teams in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades.

Last year there were six premier grade teams, six senior one teams and no Saturday age-grade divisions above the u13s.

Poverty Bay Rugby Union chief executive Josh Willoughby said the points the group had raised were “no secret”.

He said the drive to win had brought gradual changes in the approach to the game, and he sympathised with concerns about how the game had changed.

“We are all talking about it,” he said.

“We're all trying to increase participation and safety.”

He and Kirkpatrick talk regularly about the state of the game, and he said it was no surprise when the advert ran in the paper.

“It's only helping the conversation. It's got people talking.

“What we have learned over the past 12 to 18 months is that we have to be adaptable.”