Jones: no game without juniors

GOOD FOR THE GAME: Ngati Porou East Coast chief executive Cushla Tangaere-Manuel with Sir Michael Jones and two local schoolboy players, Doone Kahu and Henare Herbert, at the Coast’s match against Poverty Bay in Ruatoria. Jones says Heartland and junior rugby are vital for the sport.Picture by Paul Rickard

RUGBY

THE health of rugby in New Zealand depends on a lot more than the All Blacks winning, says Sir Michael Jones.

The sport has to look after its base, the All Black legend said at a sponsors evening put on by the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union last week.

“If we haven’t got junior rugby and Heartland rugby, we haven’t got a game.”

Jones was the guest speaker at a function on Friday and also travelled to Ruatoria for Saturday’s match between Poverty Bay and Ngati Porou East Coast.

He is a New Zealand Rugby board member and is a “buddy” for both the Bay and the Coast.

The amount of travel for players is one of the Coast’s big challenges and the grandstand at Gisborne’s Rugby Park is a problem for Poverty Bay.

The Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union has closed the grandstand because it is potentially earthquake-prone.

Jones said sponsors were among the key ingredients of a successful game.

The sport was facing some big challenges and teamwork was needed to overcome them.

Jones said schoolboy rugby was important but under pressure with declining participation rates.

Young people needed to feel connected and be allowed room to grow, he said.

“It’s also about making sure they are learning life skills, disciplines and being good members of society.”

People tended to drop out of the sport after leaving school, which was another challenge.

“The clubs are still the glue of our society,” he said.

They helped create a sense of belonging.

“Rugby’s been so good to me.”

His way of giving back was to work with people on the periphery.

That included encouraging Maori and Pacific youth to “be the very best they can be”.

Poverty Bay coach Tom Cairns said the union wanted to strengthen its connection with clubs.

Cairns said the Town against Country fixture last month sowed seeds of unity.

All the club coaches were involved in that event and the rep coaches had been to club training sessions.

Poverty Bay has decided not to use loan players this year, preferring to give players from the club competition opportunities.

“Going local is really important to us,” Cairns said.