Whats wrong with Auckland Rugby?

Obviously include North harbour here, they are just as much "Auckland" as Auckland. Terrible support base. They won the shield in glorious fashion and no one turned up. Awful record outside the 1st few years when they were good. Did the new City of North Shore become the 1st ever major NZ place who doesnt care about rugby? yet somehow they also produce some great All Black in Woodcock and pretty good ones in Boric, McAlister, /several speedy wings

Auckland. Very bad recent Super rugby record, not close to good enough consdering player base and individuals. Patchy recent NPC record and currently sitting dead last in the revamped NPC. AUCKLAND..... LAST......weird

wot gives

Forgot G-Fields favourite son...Walter Little

Auckland's had nil stability last few years... look say 2002-2007 or so and the core of the team was roughly the same
Since then - I remember 2008 looking at team sheets and saying who? - nil
Without stability, no success

What you essentially saying then is our players are more nomadic than other regions. Im not sure how you could prove that but it does make some sense. Would Aucklanders travel more tha te rest of the country? yeah ...you would think so right

I dunno if thats its only problem though, I suspect other regions are more tribal and even tighter than us as communities/w-e... pure speculation of course

It's all mental. Nobody is passionate about playing for Auckland any more, what is there to be passionate about? Culturally Auckland sits at the point of the pyramid and everyone loves to hate us. Other teams have something to play for, they turn up every day to train and play with purpose and pride. That's what Cantabrians do for sure.

We shouldn't ignore the cultural angle either. This is not so much a commentary on 'race' per se, but it's about a huge amount of kids that come from very strong, proud cultures that they value WAY higher than provincial Auckland. When a Pacific Island boy grows up in Auckland his life revolves around family, God, and then sport. It's only when sport becomes a viable career option do they have a shift in mindset and begin to focus on it - for many this is too late. By the time they reach 18/19yo development squads you can't install some false sense of provincial pride in them for a city that they see merely as a stepping stone to greater things.

The support base is exactly the same. I've been out on the road with the All Black Roadshow and the support you get from the regions is astonishing. Yet you do an All Black event in Aotea Square and who comes? Nobody... Fucking nobody! People are busy in Auckland. There is competition for their time, their dollar and their attention - what incentive do they actually have to turn up to watch Harbour or Auckland play when 80% of the time it looks like the players don't even want to be there?



gc.

Why go watch NPC when you could go watch the Warriors?

Some even better posts there smf, and yeah its hard to bring up the pacific Island influence on Auckland Rugby without being branded a racist of w/e. But there has been rumblings about it for many years and you would have to say the "racists" are being proved as just pragmatic and honest after all. We have seen evidence ie The Haden/Canterbury "2 coconuts only" debacle that this view is held in some quarters but not many are willing to speak of it. Besides that....the physical dominance of PI kids has a very negative influence on playing numbers at a crucial stage, non-PI mums simply dont wanna see their kids getting continuously crushed by bigger/stronger kids (and who can blame them?) the kids themselves dont exactly like it either... I dont think the significance of that can be ignored


North harbours lack of support is particualry perpelexing to me, I drive past the Shore rugby Clubs which are crammed on saturdays, club rugby is alive and well and North harbour reps are the elite of these teams so why those supporters dont migrate to suport their players onto greater honours is kind of weird

Well, in 2005... Auckland had this backline
9: Devine
10:Lavea
12: Nacewa
13: Atiga
11: Rokocoko
14: Howlett
15: Ward
If you don't think that backline was as exciting and awesome to watch as any backline ever - NRL or rugby -, you're mad as a cut snake

BTW Smf I get your point, but as little as 4 years ago (2007) Auckland won the NPC unbeaten so it's hardly like our culture has changed so dramatically in 4 years?

2005 was a truly GREAT Auckland team.
A few players started leaving then (BTW I said Nacewa in my last post, but it was Sammy Tuitupou who was starting 12)
2007 they won it unbeaten but I think cracks were starting to show...
2007-2008 there was a huge overseas exodus. I think Sammy T and Nacewa and Ward all left then (could be wrong) but at the start of 2008 you had guys like Pakalani/Helleur etc coming into the team and they simply weren't as good as the guys they replaced.
Since then it's got worse - when guys like Pakalani actually leave to go to the Waratahs... etc

Auckland develops them but doesn't keep them long enough

Also I don't think the coaching is good enough from a tactical perspective. Lam may be a good motivator but there's nothing creative about his schemes

I can't speak to Auckland rugby without going on a rant about Super rugby over-saturating the market and ruining the NPC, but since this is the active rugby thread:

Does anyone else feel that the Wallabies continued shitness seems to be doing a good job of shutting Robbie Deans fans the fuck up? Aint heard boo from them in ages.

Particularly when I heard someone on Radio Sport saying his record against the All Blacks (and ergo, nemisis Henry) is a paltry 13-2. HO HO HO.

The reason the Auckland team are struggling is because they do not have the depth, despite the fact that they have the biggest pool of players. I will explain.

Back in my semi pro days (Auckland development) a lot of guys who didn't make Auckland, basically went and played for smaller unions. Those guys weren't anything special, but good enough for NPC level. But over time the player drain became somewhat problematic and now when depth matters the most and unions require more players, guys from Auckland club competition who didn't have a chance making Auckland, have established themselves in smaller unions as regulars. New comers from club rugby in Auckland don't even bother turning up to Auckland rep trials these days. Instead they get in the car and go for Northland or BOP trials. So I agree with vadz on that.

Kris, somewhat agree with you. I never understood those people who said that they will stop supporting AB's because Deans didn't get the job. But you also need to consider that he has arguably "worse" players to choose from.

Certainly he has much less depth, but the gulf between the top 22 players of the 2 countries is nowhere near is wide as 13-2

Deans apparent genuis also gets put into perspetive by Todd Blackadder stepping up with FO experience and making the final straight away with no real home games

Yeah, that.