On Wednesday, the Auckland 1A Rugby Schools pulled broadcasting of their 1st XV matches on Sky TV, the reason given? "An unhealthy level of scrutiny in both traditional and social media".
On the face of it, I initially thought that was fair and that looking after the mental well-being of young athletes was a positive move and that’s what the schools want us to see and believe.
Then I looked at the history of the schools involved; Auckland Grammar, Kings College, St Kentigern College, St Peters College, and Sacred Heart College among them.
Schools who charge tens of thousands per year to the parents of these students … schools who must bring in millions of dollars in fees every year, schools who are among the premium secondary educators in the country and I thought, ‘Shouldn’t these schools be doing more for their athletes?’
Future sports stars of this age group around the world across a range of different sports are on a pathway to a professional career in their chosen sport, whether it’s high school basketball or football in the US, age group football in Europe and South America or even schoolboy rugby league across the ditch.
These athletes are in the spotlight and that is a part of their development into the professional game.
Surely these schools, with these resources, should already have a support network and educational framework in place to ready their students for the pathway into a pro career in rugby?
The 1st XV Matches of the 1A competition have been broadcast live since 2009. That’s 13 years of live schoolboy rugby and now it’s decided it’s too much?
Something doesn’t ring true.
Yes, looking after mental well-being is important but why remove media at this developmental stage when others are embracing it?
These are educational institutions, they shouldn’t be removing media but teaching, yes teaching, last I checked that’s a school’s primary purpose; teaching their students how to deal with it.
That is, I’m told, what the Super 8 schools are doing.
The ARU and NZR should be looking very hard at this, it’ll have a knock-on effect on the depth and development of players coming through.
Players that want a pro career will just look elsewhere and go to schools in Rotorua, Wanganui and Hamilton. Auckland schools have been given free rein to the detriment of the clubs, something they should look to address.
The principals of these schools aren’t stupid, they will see what the potential knock-ons of this decision will be so for me, this isn’t really about “mental well-being”, that’s the front that is being used to sell this decision.
If it was, where are the stats? How are they backing this up?
They’re not, so what is it really about? Wanting a piece of the Silver Lake pie? Wanting a seat at the top table? More control of the game at the youth level?
That’s the question that needs answering.