Even In New Zealand They Are Worried About Player Drop-Out At An Early Age

FURTHER to my recent post about Recreational Ice Hockey as a game we could adapt to rugby, as a means of keeping the less-gifted playing; I read in today's Weekend New Zealand Herald, I am not alone in this advocacy.

Because the North Harbour Rugby Union, one of the newer district unions in New Zealand has scrapped its junior representative programme, in favour of a scheme aimed at increasing participation, and keeping kids playing longer.

North Harbour research has indicated that, when kids fail to get on the Union's performance pathway, which leads ultimately to that All Black jersey, they tend to simply stop playing rugby.

The move will mean North Harbour dropping out of the annual Roller Mills tournament, an Under-13 competition played between the various North Island Unions - Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Counties-Manukau, King Country, North Harbour, Northland, Thames Valley and Waikato, with the venue switching around the unions each year.

 "Pine Tree" Meads, it all began for him in the Roller Mills - when he was a hooker!!

The official Roller Mills website features some of the great All Blacks who were first spotted there, names such as Current All Blacks' captain Kieran Reid, Sonny Bill Williams, Kevin Mealamu, the great Grant Fox, Sir Wilson Whineray,Sir Colin Meads and his younger brother Stan – who was also an All Black, Waka Nathen, Mac Herweni and Ron Rangi – the centre who allegedly invented “the Maori side-step,” he simply ran over his opponent!!

Needless to say, this decision has not gone down well locally, with North Harbour Union General Manager Darren Gibson, a former Auckland Blues and Maori All Blacks scrum-half admitting: “One or two parents have already indicated they are switching their sons to another union.” he admitted.

But, Gibson is adamant: “Harbour's purpose is 'Improving Lives, Through Rugby', and when it comes to our community we want to maximise engagement and grow participation through quality experiences.

"For us this means cultivating a climate of development and fun around our junior rugby programmes and putting the kids at the centre of the experience."

He added: “We will introduce 'rugby development experiences' we are forming in conjunction with the clubs and that will be available to all players. We will also introduce a non-contact Rippa grade targeting boys between 8-13, and girls' under-15s and school grades.”

As part of its review into secondary schools rugby, New Zealand Rugby released figures that showed a sharp drop-off in the numbers of school-age boys playing the national sport. One of the key reasons given for this was that teenagers quickly lost interest if they did not feel they were on a performance pathway.

Bill Wigglesworth, who leads North Harbour's engagement and participation team, said the concept was not without internal debate.

"We had to challenge ourselves on whether this was the correct approach, but in the end the evidence was overwhelming," he said. "[Children] want to have fun, play with their mates, learn new skills and be supported.

"Rugby is a late specialisation sport and introducing performance and rep programmes too early can create behaviours that discourage participation in kids and have a negative impact on their physical and emotional development.

"We are not saying that performance or representative programmes are negative … this is more adjusting the current system and introducing a talent development programme at a more appropriate age."

Looking in particular at Wigglesworth's words, I get the impression, in adjusting their system, so that youngsters get onto the performance pathway at a later age, North Harbour is perhaps falling more into line with how we do things in Scotland, which is encouraging. Here, the performance pathway tends to start a couple of years later than in New Zealand. However, the drop-off in numbers of school-age boys playing is a world-wide fact of life, which rugby has to tackle.

If we can keep kids playing into adulthood, it is a win-win situation for rugby. Not everyone aspires to wear the thistle, of play professionally or semi-professionally, we need to keep-up, and hopefully increase the numbers of those “bad players” that the likes of Iain Milne is so-keen to keep involved.

I WAS in-touch with my feminine side last night, showing that men can multi-task. I was watching the Leinster v Southern Kings game on Free Sports, with the sound muted, while is listened to the Glasgow v Connacht game on the BBC Scotland website on the lap top.

Peter Wright was, as ever, in great form on the radio, but, perhaps not in as-good form as Sam Grove-White, who refereed the Leinster game very well indeed.

Brandon Thomson - Man of the Match for Glasgow last night

That was certainly a very good performance, from an under-strength Glasgow side, to pick-up a bonus-point win against opponents who are never easily subdued. His two tries will do Grant Stewart the world of good, while one or two others of the fringe guys did themselves no harm. I was also pleased to see big Robbie Nairn grab his brace of tries, while Brandon Thomson's Man of the Match performance was also worth celebrating.

After this afternoon's internationals, attention turns to Edinburgh's clash with Cardiff at BT Murrayfield. It is good to see Damien Hoyland back in-harness after his season-long injury issues, but, for me, I am hoping that Mark Bennett gets on and is able to show us he is over his injury.

A fit and firing Bennett could be a key player for Edinburgh over the final weeks of the season, and, if he does as I expect him to, he will surely go to Japan for the World Cup. For me, he is our best 13 and, biased though I undoubtedly am, I hope to see him back in the national team come the World Cup.