General Your League Playing Days?

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

How good were you at league and who did you play for at your prime?

Here's me making my debut as a youngster;

 

[Danpatmac]

I was garbage.

Played wing/fullback for Northcote college, Northcote Tigers U18, Auckland University Bravos.

My career highlight was playing for Auckland uni vs the Tuakau Black Power.

I got destroyed the first time i touched the ball so stayed out on my wing and never even looked for work.

Like I said, garbage.

 

[Miket12]

Come on LGH, we all know you're older than that

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

I went to school in England, in a working class area of London and the only sport we played at school - except for running, jumping and throwing stuff in summer - was football.

We had cricket nets, but the requirement to own your own bat, ball, pads etc put pay to that.

We did play one term a year of "rugby" - a sport that none of us were familiar with - taught by our two PE teachers (who, bizarley, were both from Lancashire - league heartland, and about as far away from London as you can get.) Looking back, we played a bizare game: lineouts, contested scrums, 6 tackles and a play the ball!

I was pretty good - I was placed at prop but used to enjoy skittling the weedy kids out wide when ever I got the chance - imagine a white Konrad Hurrell with the ball playing skills of a young Ali lauiti'ti - so I went to ask the teacher about whether we were going to field a team like we did in football. He told me that the local schools competition was only for the private schools. I lost interest after that.

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

P.S. The only "rugby" on tv back then was the Five Nations and the Challenge Cup - Sky hadn't been invented.

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

After my transfer the Leeds;



Love the scrums!

 

[surfin]

Just a couple of questions, firstly is that you with your arm looped through your buddies as you come out to play and do you still wear your shorts that close to your armpits? Also would I be right in thinking that is also the same defensive training video currently being used by the Warriors. Finally do you think we need more cloth caps in the stands for celebratory twirling.

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

 

[tajhay]

What a throwback thread.

League was banned at Lynfield College when i attended it. A group of us started going to the furthest field from the school to play there during lunch times. Sometimes it would be 10 v 10 ...other times 30 vrs 30. Coat hangers galore. No refs. Good old squaring ups. Ended up tearing majority of my ligaments on my right knee that put me out of all sports for 18 months when i got hit from the front and side at the same time. Highlight would be scoring all 9 tries for my team in one lunchtime game lol

Lets kickstart this thread. Did you play league? It seems some of you played for clubs. Lets hear the stories.

 

[Mt Albert Lions]

I remember playing Lynfield College more in league than I did in union back in my school days. Played heaps of league and union in my younger days and for club and schools. Richmond, City Newtown, Mt Albert, Glenora and Waitemata were my club growing up as a kid in central and out west.

 

[PolarBob]

Could never replicate social/training form on game day, so was an underwhelming player. Wing mainly, due to speed, hooker/half the most enjoyable. A couple of teams, Marlins being my favourite. Stopped playing at U21s. Kept breaking.

 

[Weno]

I remember playing schoolboys for Whatawhata Wolves,we had a club day against The Northcote Tigers at Northcote.
Only our U/15s went back to Hamilton with a victory that day.
Herbs were the entertainment in the clubrooms and there was this man going around selling raffles most of the night.
He was bubbly and full of energy.A few weeks later we are watching a test match and this same raffle man comes on to replace the Legendary Clayton Friend.
Remember saying to my dad,that man sells raffles for the Northcote Tigers.
My dad was buzzing hearing that we got be in the same place with Gary Freeman,he boasted about it for weeks as if he was with us.LOL

 

[Weno]

My older brothers compared me to Tony Tuimavaeve as a player, they followed me where ever Northland played in the country.
Was a bit gutted then, because i was still sporting the Nikau mullet and thought my Nikau ball playing and attack was my fortay. LOL.
Reality was,i was more a grass cutting tackle bot than the awesome ball player i thought i was.
Moulded my attack on Nikau and all round game from Billy Moore to be a Tuimavaeve with a Toopi build, LOL.
Cant complain with that though, Tuimavaeve had a great defensive and enforcing reputation, at least they did not compare me to sh*t. LOL.
Was a bit above average player,always made the team and got to trials.
Northland being my only rep honours and a season and a half with Wynnum Manly being my biggest opportunity before knee trouble. Still ice up just after anything recreational up to this day.

 

[Buck777]

Playing U16's for Mt Albert, when I got to 6th form at Mt Roskill Grammar I wasn't remotely interested in playing union. Approached by my form teacher and asked to put my name down for the 1st XV. Said no. Asked why, said I was happy playing league. I'll never forget his face and reply. He said 'are you hoping for a successful year at school with a good reference at the end? I said yes. He said - then put your name down, smirked and walked away. I'm serious it was blackmail.
Dad wanted to tear the school apart ( he's an old leaguee from the pt chev pirates in the 50's/60's ), but I relented - didn't want to fight a war I'd never win. Funny enough MRGS won the comp that year. I'd guess half the team played league in the morning and 1st XV in the afternoon.
A lot on these pages don't realise what a dirty word League was back in the late 70's early to mid 80's. I remember a caller telling that exact story ( where schools were blackmailing leaguee's to play union, this school was Takapuna Grammar). Deaker went on and on saying that never happened. It did, more than you think.

 

[surfin]

Playing U16's for Mt Albert, when I got to 6th form at Mt Roskill Grammar I wasn't remotely interested in playing union. Approached by my form teacher and asked to put my name down for the 1st XV. Said no. Asked why, said I was happy playing league. I'll never forget his face and reply. He said 'are you hoping for a successful year at school with a good reference at the end? I said yes. He said - then put your name down, smirked and walked away. I'm serious it was blackmail.
Dad wanted to tear the school apart ( he's an old leaguee from the pt chev pirates in the 50's/60's ), but I relented - didn't want to fight a war I'd never win. Funny enough MRGS won the comp that year. I'd guess half the team played league in the morning and 1st XV in the afternoon.
A lot on these pages don't realise what a dirty word League was back in the late 70's early to mid 80's. I remember a caller telling that exact story ( where schools were blackmailing leaguee's to play union, this school was Takapuna Grammar). Deaker went on and on saying that never happened. It did, more than you think.

Mate it's still happening,couple of the towns here in the Coromandel have a few league grades now and the union boofheads wouldn't let them use "their" grounds and tried to do the old if you play league you can't play rugby threat. Backfired a bit cause a lot of the kids went OK. So they had to back track cause they were struggling to get numbers.

 

[Buck777]

Mate it's still happening,couple of the towns here in the Coromandel have a few league grades now and the union boofheads wouldn't let them use "their" grounds and tried to do the old if you play league you can't play rugby threat. Backfired a bit cause a lot of the kids went OK. So they had to back track cause they were struggling to get numbers.

It's the fight that keeps me going!! Honestly that's how I'm wired. When deaker slam dunks us, the herald, ONE and at times tv3 ignore us. When we miss out year after year at the halbergs...my only revenge is I run a team of 20 at work. Anyone that wants to watch/go to the warriors..very generous. Any other sport take a number. League people are different. They are the salt of the earth, good workers, loyal. They get rewards lol.

 

[joshfinlay]

I still play but I played for me school team as co-captain and my local club and played rep also, as five-eight or hooker or even winger!

 

[way2sharp]

It's the fight that keeps me going!! Honestly that's how I'm wired. When deaker slam dunks us, the herald, ONE and at times tv3 ignore us. When we miss out year after year at the halbergs...my only revenge is I run a team of 20 at work. Anyone that wants to watch/go to the warriors..very generous. Any other sport take a number. League people are different. They are the salt of the earth, good workers, loyal. They get rewards lol.

Love it.
Was very average for Petone and Wainuiomata back in the day when it was just a fight with a ball thrown in for good measure. Loved it and the people tho, was the only whitey for miles!
Was better at coaching/managing and started and ran the schools comp in Wellington for a while.
Was trespassed from a number of schools and had some pretty interesting threats from the rugby schools. It definitely was and us and them.
Personally have never got over it - hate rugby and all it stands for with a passion.
Highlight of an inglorious career was being selector for a number of NZ schoolboy sides. Picked Manu, Sharkie, Frank Paul and a few others in their first U15 rep side.
Nice thread Lord Gnome.

 

[Gizzyfan]

Never actually played league, went to New Plymouth BHS in the days when you needed a medical certificate NOT to play union. Grew up in Union but never really saw any anti league bias. probably the closest I saw was the reaction to some dirty pommy prick who toured in the early 70's, Mills I think his name was. From memory a good many Leaguies thought the same.

A few years later was playing NPC and was told that being quite big and fast with good defense I could be a good League player. I was asked to try out for Central Districts, but found out Union had watchers at the trials so I chickened out. I don't have too many regrets about it, I had a great time playing with my mates, same as the league guys. It happened, can't change it, why worry about it.

I now prefer league to watch due to the IRB totally stuffing the rules to try and negate Southern Hemisphere dominance. One argument was too many tries are scored FFS. As an ex coach I like to try and analyse what is happening as I was primarily a back coach and tried to constantly work out ways to work players into space.

It is a lot simpler game than Union (that is not a criticism). I equate it to Nascar where they say that the simplicity of an oval circuit complicates being successful. I believe a lot of the basics are the same, possession, position, pace, run straight, never pass to a person in a worse position etc.

 

[Paleaaesina2the20]

Played club league in Chch, only div 2 with mates. Played either back row or five eighth, not unlike Brad Fitler in that respect, but unlike Brad Fitler in every other way. First game was against a side of Tongans that only had one player who could speak English, They had an 18 year old kid who was 6ft 8 and 191kgs, that is not a mis print, he was also their goal kicker and kicked 6/6.
There was a prison based team in that comp for a while but most teams would just step them out and start fights so that ended. Also we had a black power member in our side who was a maniac, interesting times playing against Aranui and Timaru who had rival gang members.