Weirdly Volleyball has always been a vibrant 'other sport'. Even back in 'my day' (cough 3 odd decades ago) there were a ton of tournaments (eg. every Taranaki school had at least a jnr and snr boys and girls team), really well organised North or sth island tournaments for juniors and Nationals for seniors. just as you said, massive range of schools and demographics - arguably it's continued this way because guess who DOESN'T tend to offer volleyball - the private schools. So, no over coaching, money flowing in to make it dominated by one or two schools. Tauranga always tended to dominate then, maybe again as all it's population at schools offering it, vs say Auckland where a large part dont' play due to all the private schools (no idea how it stacks today, just an 'i reckon').
Def even more tournaments now, new rules have helped the game grow, always seems to have good regional admins who presumably do it more for love than $ since I'm sure it's well down the grant spectrum.
Regarding that victory lap, I believe it was after the first-test loss, which is why it seemed so egregious
Weirdly Volleyball has always been a vibrant 'other sport'. Even back in 'my day' (cough 3 odd decades ago) there were a ton of tournaments (eg. every Taranaki school had at least a jnr and snr boys and girls team), really well organised North or sth island tournaments for juniors and Nationals for seniors. just as you said, massive range of schools and demographics - arguably it's continued this way because guess who DOESN'T tend to offer volleyball - the private schools. So, no over coaching, money flowing in to make it dominated by one or two schools. Tauranga always tended to dominate then, maybe again as all it's population at schools offering it, vs say Auckland where a large part dont' play due to all the private schools (no idea how it stacks today, just an 'i reckon').
Def even more tournaments now, new rules have helped the game grow, always seems to have good regional admins who presumably do it more for love than $ since I'm sure it's well down the grant spectrum.
You've conflated the two English tests in 1997, the 'thank you' lap was at Old Trafford, a test which the All Blacks easily won 23-8.
Funnily enough most of the English team did another one at Twickenham after the draw last month, but no one in NZ noticed/cared.