2019 Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament
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@Bovidae said in 2019 Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament:
When you look at those results Southland is doing it tough in this age group too.
Anywhere away from the 'big' schools looks to be doing it tough.
College Rugby has a big negative effect on provincial rugby when even youngsters are sucked away to other areas -
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@Bovidae said in 2019 Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament:
@Crucial It would be interesting to see how many Southland-schooled players are representing other provinces in this tournament.
More-so how many Southland/ Northland/ CM/ Ta$man and heartland kids are.
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@Bovidae 6 Northlanders playing for Auckland Under 19s..if you were a parent with a promising kid in a smaller region and he gets a scholarship..hard to argue with it.
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@Steven-Harris said in 2019 Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament:
@Bovidae 6 Northlanders playing for Auckland Under 19s..if you were a parent with a promising kid in a smaller region and he gets a scholarship..hard to argue with it.
And where does that kid end up? Not back with Northland usually.
I don’t think it should be controlled as kids deserve opportunities but you can’t deny that it is a factor in the weakening of “outer provinces “ -
@Crucial I agree with you, what it actually does , it’s takes the cream of the secondary talent from an area that you can build a very solid provincial base.
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@Steven-Harris At least 2 Northlanders in the Waikato U19s (Reihana and Parker). Speaking to someone at the Waikato-Counties U19 game the halfback and 1st 5 playing for Waikato are both ex Gisborne BHS. The halfback is Charlie Ngatai's nephew, and I do remember seeing him play for GBHS.
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@Bovidae Reihana is one we would definitely love to get back in the North..I don’t think fullback is his best position but can understand why he’s in that position with Fletcher Smith running at first five
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although kids leaving for scholarships (not just rugby ones) isnt a new thing, happened when I was at school (which was a few years back now) and I expect it will happen for years to come.
I believe there is a local scheme set up to get talented youngsters into the Auckland system (unsure if it is just with AGS, but one boy I know of is there)...this may mean they never come back, but by the same token, they may not reach thier potential if they stay here.
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@Steven-Harris said in 2019 Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 Tournament:
@Bovidae Reihana is one we would definitely love to get back in the North..I don’t think fullback is his best position but can understand why he’s in that position with Fletcher Smith running at first five
Likely out of necessity.
- Campbell got injured early in the Canterbury game
- Alaimalo injured in the last preseason game
- Lansdown made his first appearance off the bench vs Auckland after injury
It will be interesting to see if Reihana is released to play for the U19s after being named in the original squad.
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@Crucial Yep, and Hawke's Bay. Look at that Wellington squad. The first two names on their list are former HB age grade players, who played the National Top 4 Final for Napier Boys 1st XV, last year. I haven't looked at all the squads, but there are at least last year's Hastings Boys winger Naikotani in the Canterbury squad, and Zarn Sullivan in the Auckland squad, too.
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@Bovidae you mean the Northland under 19 squad..?..lol
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@Stargazer you win some and you lose some. Hawkes Bay have received their fair share of players. There’s been about 6 Wellington schoolboys who have featured for the Bay in some capicity over the last couple of years so stop playing the “let’s all feel sorry for the Bay card”.
These are some of the players off the top of my head.
- Hanon Brighouse
- Joel Hintz
- Ben Power
- Zac Donaldson
- Joe Apikitoa
- Jack Nelson-Murray
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@Canes4life There we go again. There's a big difference. These 6 players were not wanted by Wellinghton (at various age grade levels) and came to the Bay to see if they could make the Magpies squad instead. Hintz (a journey man who also tried his luck in Canterbury and failed to crack their NPC team) managed to get a start in the first games of this season due to Ben May being injured (and wasn't too bad, I admit that), but the other players never managed to nail a regular (starting) spot in the Magpies squad, because they aren't good enough. Ben Power and Joe Apikotoa left the Bay after one year, probably for that reason. They weren't the only ones. The only reason Donaldson will get some game time this season is because Weber is in the ABs, but he was leapfrogged by Fakatava as soon as Fakatava left school.
We have pointed this out to you several times before, but you keep bringing it up. You can't compare these players/situations. The Thompson twins were wanted by the Bay and would have made the HB U19s this year and the Magpies probably next year or soon enough.
Wellington signs HB players that were wanted and would succeed in the Bay. The Bay gets some unwanted leftovers from other provinces, including Wellington, who most of the time won't really make it in the Bay, either. They're stopgaps at best. There may be some exceptions, but that doesn't change the fact that these players were not wanted by their home provinces.
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@Stargazer I'm not the one that keeps bringing it up. You consistently have digs at Wellington Rugby, whether it's Wellington schools not making Hurricanes schools finals or Wellington picking up the odd Hawkes Bay player (even though they have connections to certain clubs in Wellington). At the end of the day that's business, I don't know why you are always so salty about it.
I don't think the difference is so BIG, as you state. Yes, players like Nelson Murray received little interest, but that was definitely not the case for Brighouse. He was one of Wellington's biggest school prospects at the time, similar to the Thompson twins. The fact he hasn't reached his potential is another story, he still had big wraps on him when he made the move to Hawkes Bay. Plus, how do you know both of the Thompson twins will succeed in Wellington? Tyrone will most likely be okay at Hooker but Leo will struggle to crack the Wellington Lions as a centre - we already have the Umaga Jensen twins, Billy Proctor, Vince Aso, Wes Goosen and Keinan Higgins coming through aswell.
At the end of the day you don't always get unwanted leftovers. In fact I remember a club coach from the Bay stating Hannon was the future of Hawkes Bay rugby after putting in big shifts at Club Rugby.
Wellington have a shit tone of players that have moved provinces to explore other opportunities, heck we even just lost Walker-Leawere to you guys.
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@Canes4life TBF, the WRU picking up the odd player from the region doesn't really bother me, what does bother me (and this is no secret to anyone on here
) is that the WRU have a stake in the Canes franchise and young players from Hawkes Bay regularly struggle to make the Canes on 'potential' in the same way Wellingtonians do.As for out U19 team I don't know why it's so poor and our recent schoolboy domination in the region doesn't translate, I guess it's a combination of the cream of the U19 players are already playing a level above and the other decent first XV players not carrying on for some reason or another.
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@Nepia I am actually in the same boat as you, in that I believe the Hurricanes should split from Wellington Rugby completely and focus on attracting talent from all around New Zealand. To keep up with the likes of the Crusaders the Hurricanes need to be scanning the whole country for talent - whether it's HB, Northland, Southland, it doesn't matter to me. If a player is good enough to be a Cane, it shouldn't matter where he comes from.
Wellington has long been an organisation that has promised: "jobs for the boys" which has been one of the big reasons for a lack of silverware. Their connection with the Hurricanes probably hasn't helped the case of players from the Hawkes Bay getting a fair run, however, I really do think this is changing.
