A fight broke out at this year's annual first XV rugby grudge match between Christchurch Boys’ High School and Christ’s College. Photo / George Heard
A fight broke out at this year's annual first XV rugby grudge match between Christchurch Boys’ High School and Christ’s College. Photo / George Heard
A highly-charged first XV rugby match where supporters were breath-tested by private security contractors didn’t prevent punches, homophobic slurs and invective being thrown around the sideline. Kurt Bayer reports.
The old boys and students had been warned.
The annual first XV rugby grudge match between Christchurch Boys’ High School (CBHS)and Christ’s College has previously been marred by boozed-up supporters and boisterous past students.
Pre-loading, hip-tucked hip flasks, and living out past glories through the teenagers young enough to be nephews, sons or grandsons. Anxiously vicarious parents treating the schoolboy fixture like a Bledisloe Cup decider. Schoolboys wound up in it all, a Kiwi game of Quidditch wrapped up in house-hoopla, stripy blazers and pack fever.
Stark missives were dispatched this week ahead of the derby game between Canterbury’s two oldest boys’ schools by the CBHS headmaster through several networks including the old boys’ mailing list.
Guzzling ahead of, and at a school, in the middle of the day, was in no way appropriate, he felt necessary to say. The old boys were especially put on notice.
“I am very confident in the behaviour of the CBHS and CC students. We are concerned about the past behaviour of Old Boys and the harm that this behaviour does to culture,” CBHS headmaster, and coach of the 9A ‘Black’ cricket XI, Nic Hill said earlier.
The fixture dates back more than 100 years. Photo / George Heard
He would be happy to sit down with anyone who thought it appropriate or necessary to drink alcohol to watch schoolboy rugby, or anyone who needed help understanding “why offensive chanting is counter to the values that both schools promote and lead”.
An ugly history of sideline thuggery dating back to the mid-90s has previously seen the presence of police and security guards at the match.
A string of arrests after a 2009 mass brawl then saw CBHS endorse a Christ’s College initiative to eliminate all alcohol from the event.
The annual grudge match has often seen taunting and confronting behaviour as this image from the 2007 fixture shows. Photo / Christchurch Star
“It is a schoolboy event that has sadly been marred by adult behaviour,” Hill said in one pre-emptive message this week.
“The harm caused by a small minority of former students has been centred around misuse of alcohol, offensive behaviour and a focus on winning ... This rugby match is not a marketing event. The success and worthiness of the schools, teams and players is not dependent on the outcome of the game. No one needs to consume alcohol to watch schoolboy rugby, nor is alcohol use appropriate on a working school site at 12pm in the afternoon. Good people don’t make homophobic, racist, misogynist or otherwise offensive comments.”
And so, today, under blue skies and balmy late-autumn weather, all spectators were breath-tested on arrival. Orange-and-blue jacketed ‘fan experience event security’ staff got all-comers to blow into a machine. Bags were checked for smuggled liquor.
Everyone was breath-tested on their way in. Photo / George Heard
But despite the measures and warnings, once the rousing dual hakas were performed and the game kicked off, the crowd — uniformed schoolboys in lightly-segregated sections, along with non-pupil spectators in scarves, faded Crusaders caps, and old school blazers — quickly fell into deeply-engrained behaviours. Some sections were soon baiting and chanting.
It wasn’t the old boys though. They were on best behaviours. It was the younger elements who were fired up.
“Syrup! Syrup! Syrup!” the CBHS boys at the southern end soon chided, a long-standing jibe only red-and-blacks would get.
“Soggy! Soggy!” came the replies from 100m-plus away.
There were heady wafts of grog.
“Where’s the toilet?” one supporter asked his mates. “Those beers are going right through me.”
Clearly, the breathalysers weren’t failsafe.
Less than 15 minutes in, with the Straven Rd home side already looking dominant, things kicked off at the northern end.
Some CBHS students had boldly mingled with a large group of College supporters and while the banter initially appeared in good spirits, it wasn’t long before things turned sour.
Aggressive shouting turned to shoving and then punches were thrown. Security rushed in and the instigators were turfed out.
Several supporters were ejected after a scuffle in the crowd. Photo / George Heard
“F*** I don’t know how Bean got in,” one College supporter said.
“You just count real slow, eh,” came the reply, laughing at the breath-testing measures.
The signs of ‘positive support only’ were disregarded.
“Your mums are our cleaners!” Christ’s College supporters belted through a megaphone.
“Go and earn some money you poor c***!”
It was back-to-back wins for Christchurch Boys' High School in the annual grudge match. Photo / George Heard
After a CBHS player knocked on, they railed on him.
“You f***** up! You f***** up! You f***** up!”
There were homophobic slurs tossed around.
“You gay c***!”
“Hey! You f****** homo c***.”
A teacher confiscated the megaphone despite objections: “But I don’t go to school, miss.”
When CBHS co-captain Manumaua Letiu scored a try, one supporter randomly yelled, “Straight off the plane!”
Christchurch Boys' High School dominated this year's game. Photo / George Heard
As CBHS piled on the points — up 22-3 at halftime — the College crowd became subdued.
Horns and duck calls sounded from the CBHS students packed in the Pat Vincent Stand and John Morrissey Grandstand.
The ‘College Match’ dates back 131 years, when Christ’s College won the inaugural fixture 34-0.
Since then, the blue-and-black hoops of Boys’ High have been the more successful of the two sides, winning 85 times to the white-and-black striped Christ’s 43, while there have been only nine draws.
The action-packed game attracted a large crowd. Photo / George Heard
Over the decades, the game has featured legendary future All Blacks, especially those wearing the No 10 jersey, including Robbie Deans, Andrew Mehrtens, Dan Carter, Colin Slade and Damian McKenzie.
This year was expected to be a close match, with both XVs performing strongly in the local competition.
But it was never much of a contest.
The trouble-makers who had been ejected earlier hung around moodily outside the temporary security fencing, kicking it and even attempting to climb back inside.
Security was tight at the game. Photo / George Heard
Canterbury Police earlier said they weren’t having “a planned presence” for the match but, “as usual”, they would respond to any incidents “should they arise”.
One officer had dropped by and ended up helping security encourage the rowdy ones to leave.
At the final whistle, with Boys’ High XV deserved winners, 37-3, the jubilant home students stormed the field.
They surrounded the smiling victors and taunted visiting fans at the soggy northern end.
Once it was over, the crowd emptied out, walking across the fields, in various directions, back to class, work, farms, cars and Lime scooters.
