A headmaster's call to end First XV recruitment, and the schools' summer of sevens begins

The First XV season finished in September, when St Andrew's College beat Tauranga Boys' College 34-24 to win their first national title. But school rugby has not gone quiet. This week brought a public challenge from one of the country's best-known headmasters, and the start of the summer of sevens.

"Stop recruiting": Christchurch Boys' High's headmaster

Nic Hill, headmaster of Christchurch Boys' High School, has called on schools to stop recruiting boys for sport, the Herald reported on 22 October. He has challenged the South Island Boys' School Network, which includes his own school along with Nelson College, Marlborough Boys' College, St Bede's College, Shirley Boys' High School, Christ's College, St Thomas of Canterbury College, Timaru Boys' High School, Otago Boys' High School, King's High School and Southland Boys' High School, to agree not to recruit students on sporting ability and to rethink how it promotes its teams and players.

Christchurch Boys' High offers no sporting scholarships, and its policy bans recruiting on sporting ability. Hill draws a line between enrolment, where a family chooses a school, and recruitment, where a school targets an athlete, and he says he is comfortable with his school losing games rather than recruiting. In September he described schoolboy rugby as an arms race driven by headmasters, coaches, parents and old boys. He told the Herald that other schools in the network had not committed to his position, that he was disappointed, and that he would not speak for other headmasters.

Under the current rules, the Herald reported, a player who has represented another school's First XV can play straight away if the old school grants a waiver; otherwise he serves a six-game stand-down. St Andrew's College, the national champions, has faced online criticism about scholarship numbers; Hill declined to comment on St Andrew's specifically and said he suspected some of the stories were exaggerated. St Andrew's had not responded to the Herald at the time of publication.

It is a debate that matters well beyond Christchurch. Every parent of a talented teenager, and every school without a scholarship budget, has a stake in how it ends.

The summer of sevens begins

At the Napier Boys' High School sevens tournament on Saturday 17 October, Feilding High School won the Cup final 12-5 against the hosts, and Hastings Boys' High School beat Whanganui Collegiate in the Plate final after knocking out Rathkeale College in the semifinal.

In Manawatū, Manukura and Feilding High School met in the girls' Condor Sevens qualifier on Wednesday, and Feilding, Palmerston North Boys' High School and Whanganui Collegiate played a boys' tri-series on Friday.

Coming up:

• Monday 26 October (Labour Day): the Wellington region Condor Sevens qualifier at Naenae College, Lower Hutt, with open boys, open girls and under-15 grades. Last year's winners were St Patrick's College Silverstream (Christian Cullen Cup, open boys), St Bernard's College (under-15 boys) and Aotea College (under-15 girls).
• Saturday 7 November: the Hurricanes Schools Sevens at Feilding High School.
• 3 to 6 December: the national Condor Sevens at Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, with the under-15s on 3 and 4 December and the boys' and girls' open nationals on 5 and 6 December.
• 12 and 13 December: the Global Youth Sevens at Dilworth School in Auckland.

If your school is playing, we would love to hear how it goes.