Race-based rugby aims to get Maori on paddock

Raced-based rugby sides are being touted as a possible means of stemming declining numbers of Maori and Pakeha playing Auckland club rugby.

Last week Teachers-Eastern rugby club announced a proposal to field a Maori-only side in a bid to attract more Maori to the club.

The move has been backed by Auckland Rugby Football Union operations manager Dave Syms who said Maori and Pakeha numbers had continued to decline despite overall player numbers remaining constant.

Maori make up around 14 per cent of the Auckland population but account for around 9 per cent of the region's rugby players.

Around 35 per cent of the 20,000 Auckland rugby players are Pacific islanders, while 46 per cent are Pakeha.

New Zealand Rugby Union community rugby manager Brent Anderson said that while Maori participation was low in Auckland there had been an increase in players from 1500 to 2000 last year.

Mr Anderson said NZRU officials were struggling to understand why Maori player numbers remained low and had commissioned research to try to solve the problem and had appointed a Maori Liaison officer, Tiki Edwards.

Former All Black and New Zealand Maori captain Wayne Shelford said the decline was a "worrying trend".

He suspected many Maori were being lured to rugby league, and blamed the effects of professional rugby which had made the sport into a job.

Sport commentator Murray Deaker said teams based on ethnicity was "extremely dangerous". The concept went "against the real base of New Zealand rugby, which has always been rugby as a game played by all races together in the same team".