This may be an exercise in drawing the longest of bows, but as the All Blacks bungled their way through 80 minutes in Tokyo last week, it hinted again that the top of the rugby pyramid is being adversely impacted by the commercialisation and commoditisation of the base.
Forthe last decade, New Zealand’s rugby ecosystem has been labouring under this misapprehension that professionalism can’t begin early enough: that if you want well-conditioned, technically proficient, strategically smart players in the NPC, Super Rugby and All Blacks, then the earlier that process begins, the better the result.
The more exposure teenage players can have to media scrutiny, to seeing themselves on the TV and various clips of their work then being shared across social media, then the more it will seem natural when they hit the big time.
And because this thinking has pervaded in many of the traditional schools, First XV rugby has been something of a runaway train in this race to professionalise and commercialise.
Sponsors logos have appeared on jerseys. Sky has made First XV a major selling point in its battle to win subscribers.
Private schools, two in particular — St Kentigern College and King’s College — lost the plot for a while with the volume of scholarships they were doling out.
Old boy networks have wielded undue influence in the way they have pressured principals to professionalise their rugby programmes.
Super Rugby clubs have competed with one another so fiercely for talent that it has ended up with them signing kids while they are still at school, something which in turn has brought player agents into the educational realm.
Schools have played their part in facilitating this commercialisation by hunting for people to coach their teams — to fulfill paid positions such as director of rugby and use it to launch their own careers, as most of them seem to graduate to the NPC.
And then there are parents, who have bought into this idea far too easily that their little Johnny is going to be the next big thing, despite genetics and statistics screaming otherwise.
First XV has become an extension of the professional game — a profitable business for some and has been designed with this one goal in mind, which is to produce an athlete better prepared to take the next step up the ladder.
But the system has failed to achieve its aim. Early exposure to professionalism has not created the sort of people the All Blacks need.
Sky TV commentators Karl Te Nana and Ken Laban covering Firxt XV rugby. Photo / Photosport
Too much focus on rugby and being immersed in this commercialised world of First XV has stunted the growth of too many young men — not physically (but who knows with all that heavy training in their mid-teens) — but holistically.
How do they find the time to partake in other activities — cultural, service or even other sports - to gain that breadth of extra-curricular exposure that rounds out young people?
And, more importantly, what attitudes do they form about their academic studies and the importance of classroom success when they are seemingly being groomed to be professional rugby players?
New Zealand’s national rugby team has built its success on the mantra that “better people make better All Blacks”, and this professionalised development system within secondary schools is not making better people.
Speaking to the Herald a few years ago, Dane Coles said he wasn’t a fan of professionalised First XV cultures, as he found young players were arriving in the Hurricanes overly confident about their abilities, impatient to be given game time and not great at coping with disappointment and minor adversity.
Commercialising schools rugby has failed to achieve its goal and it has put undue stress on those who have come through it — forcing boys as young as 15 to deal with the pressures of playing in front of TV cameras, of seeing their mistakes go viral, and having to keep their egos in check when a whole community talks them up as one to watch.
Putting the genie back in the bottle is going to be hard, but the principals of the 1A schools have taken the first step by no longer allowing their games to be live broadcast.
That won’t kill commercialisation, but it will act as a slow puncture and it will hopefully help reset a few minds that this country needs the education system to be geared towards producing doctors, teachers, and technical whizz kids far more than it does professional rugby players.
Hopefully, too, those who were outraged by the decision to stop televising games will maybe wonder why they weren’t so incensed by the revelation that the NCEA programme is failing to develop basic literacy and numeracy skills.
The 1A principals are trying to reposition First XV as a wholesome part of a holistic education and build the better people that make better All Blacks.
For that, they deserve support, not derision, and for all the other adults in the room to remember they are the adults in the room.
