Schools stop playing for the cameras
Auckland principals try to put the cork back in the 1st XV broadcasting bottle, but it won't be universally popular.
This feels like a huge moment, like the first droplets of water being administered by pipette onto the raging bonfire that is school sport.
The principals of the Auckland 1A schools yesterday took a bold step, one that will be unpopular with many within their rugby communities, and ended their relationship with live broadcasting and streaming.
“The 2023 Auckland 1A 1st XV Season will see a return to the core values of secondary schools rugby with a decision made by the principals to decline live broadcasts of matches. This decision has been made with a strong and necessary emphasis on the wellbeing of students at a time when secondary schools rugby players are being exposed to an unhealthy level of scrutiny…
“As well as taking the decision to make the competition broadcast-free, the principals have also agreed that matches will not be live-streamed, and that no media interviews will be given before or during the season by coaches or players. Instead, schools will continue to encourage their student bodies and wider communities to continue to attend games in person.”
It’s not enough in the wider scheme of a school sport environment that has in the space of a generation morphed from being a broad church of mateship, rivalry and camaraderie across a wide spectrum of abilities, to being increasingly and damagingly pathway driven. It’s nowhere near enough, but it’s a hell of a marker to put down.
The adults in the room have actually become the adults in the room1, walking into headwinds that School Sport New Zealand, Rugby New Zealand and Sport New Zealand have failed to confront.
There are multiple issues at play here, two of which can be telescoped down into two stories that appeared recently.