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The Sydney Morning Herald published an important story for the Australian rugby community, reporting Nick Farr-Jones’ call for “drastic changes” to the GPS rugby competition.
A former Wallaby captain, a successful businessman and the current chairman of NSW Rugby, Farr-Jones has questioned the GPS rugby format in the light of a 101 – 0 monstering of Newington C0llege (Farr-Jones’ old school) by Scots.
Scots scored 15 tries and one parent was quoted as saying that the performance was “like watching the All Blacks, it was so beautifully put together.”
Farr-Jones made the argument that there is nothing character-forming in being beaten by a margin like this, nor in winning by such a margin.
He says that private schools should cap the number of athletes on sports scholarships to ensure that all the teams remain somewhat competitive. Only about 20 per cent of, say, a First XV should be on scholarships.
NSW Rugby, he says, is looking at replacing GPS rugby with a “broader and more balanced” competition that includes other schools and junior rugby clubs. The proposal has won support from “some schools and clubs” he said.
I would take a bet, although I am a non-betting Greek, that the schools that have not supported the proposal will be the GPS schools. These schools have always ignored the pressures to fall into line with other schools on their rugby competition.
As a father of boys who went to Sydney Boys High, a founding GPS school, I was very fond of GPS rugby. That was before the savage and costly recruitment systems that are now in place.
There was some recruitment of talented players, of course, but it was restricted and not unduly alarming until Scots recruited a virtual First XV to win the GPS tournament in 1993, their centennial year.
Now apparently the recruiting is rampant with Scots, again, leading the charge. But, apparently, they are not alone.
The owner of our local deli has a son who plays rugby at Waverley College. His lad’s team has a star player who they say will be another Israel Folau. Newington, apparently, has made the youngster an offer he won’t refuse. And so it goes on.
The recruiting part of the equation is the least worst aspect of the GPS rugby malaise. If kids are talented athletes and come from families who can’t afford to give them a GPS education, then there is some sense in them converting their athletic talents into a very good education.
It is the snobbery and isolationism of the GPS rugby set-up that has always worried me. In the past, for instance, Joeys wouldn’t change the time when their First XV played on a Saturday, even though it meant that the boys couldn’t attend a Wallaby Test match in Sydney being played at the same time.
I once wrote in a rugby column for the SMH that boys from Shore formed a cheering-corridor for their First XV when they played Sydney Boys High at Moore Park. The Shore headmaster sent an angry letter to me demanding an immediate correction on the grounds that Shore boys did not form cheering-corridors. I refused because I had seen what happened, as one of my sons (a publisher of The Roar) was a reserve halfback for the SBHS First XV, behind Chris Whitacker.
The matter was taken to higher authorities at the SMH. I suppose I was lucky I didn’t get six of the best with the cane for my impertinence in telling the truth.
Anticipating a huge resistance from the GPS schools, what I think should happen is this.
NSW Rugby, with the initiative coming from Farr-Jones, a giant of Australian rugby, should set up a city-wide rugby competition involving schools which want to take part.
My guess is that some of the GPS schools would join and others might not. Too bad for those who don’t want to join. It would only be a matter of time, and a short time at that, before they join the new competitions.
The model I would use is that used in Christchurch, New Zealand. They have an elite grade of 10 schools who play each other. These teams also play their traditional in town and out of town rivals on Wednesday afternoons or after the city competition is over.
In Sydney, you could have 12 schools that would play each other in the Australian manner down through each of the grades. Then this model would be replicated with other groups of schools, possibly based on a geographical basis, to embrace all of the secondary schools in Sydney.
You could have a promotion-relegation system to refresh each particular competition and to allow for the rise of a new power in school rugby.
The changing sociology of rugby that has come in with professional rugby is the driving force for this change that NSW Rugby is looking at. There was a time, and it was not that long ago, when the GPS schools in Sydney and Brisbane provided most of the Wallabies. Until recently, Joeys provided 1 in 15 of all the Wallabies.
The era of professional rugby started in 1996. Since then, the Wallabies have become a far more diverse group of players, both in social and genetic backgrounds. The rugby competitions for the future Wallabies needs to reflect this change.
NSW Rugby could also offer a place in the new competition to one or several of the traditional rugby league high schools. In Christchurch, the reverse is applied. Aranui High School, as well as being the leading league school, has had a place in the local rugby competition. Chris Jack, the noted second rower of a decade ago, was an Aranui old boy who graduated to the Crusaders and the All Blacks.
It should not be beyond the wit of rugby administrators, too, to organise a series of rugby sevens tournaments for the schools before the main rugby tournament starts. Rugby sevens is a vehicle for emerging talent to be fast-tracked into the professional game, something done very well in New Zealand.
GPS rugby served NSW and Australia superbly for over 100 years. But it is an elitist format now that no longer serves the best interests of boys who want to play rugby or the game itself, as it battles with all the other codes for support and players.
Nick Farr-Jones’ comments about the failures of the GPS model are spot-on. Reform is needed. Hopefully, the GPS schools will come on board, or some of them will. But a new rugby competition for Sydney is needed.
I am sure that readers of The Roar would like to express their views on what this competition should be.
We will make sure that Nick Farr-Jones gets to read the collective wisdom of The Roar on this important issue.