Auckland Grammar players gather after a recent game against St Kentigern College. Photo / Photosport.
For instance, at Westlake Boys’ High, across the harbour bridge, you can find high-profile sports broadcaster Mark Watson commentating on coverage of its First XV matches.
“I’m not having a go, but don’t tell me this is just kids’ sport,” Fruean, a devout Mormon, said over a hot chocolate in a Hamilton cafe.
“Go and watch, say, Grammar’s Nico Stanley play rugby and tell me he’s just a kid.
“These are teenagers with NPC-level skills who all train like pros. Some can even play for New Zealand Sevens at 18 years old.
“Some know they are going to be pros, some aren’t sure. But don’t have these lads get up at 5am to go for a run, if you don’t want them to be seen. And don’t spend tens of thousands on coaching them.”
O’Connor did not respond to a request for comment.
Fruean’s main online schtick is to run national rankings, offering his opinion on who he considers to be New Zealand’s top 60 Year 11 players, and top 100 Year 12 and Year 13 players. The fundamental basis is to recognise excellence, rather than to criticise.
He reckoned nobody has ever looked at his rankings of the country’s best and said “take my name out”.
Auckland Grammar students and supporters cheer on their team. Photo / Photosport
Fruean devotes a considerable amount of his time to keeping abreast of First XV rugby nationally. Typically on Saturdays, he will commute to Auckland and watch three matches, starting with early-morning lower-grade contests and finishing with a 1A First XV game.
For example, last Saturday he attended Dilworth versus Sacred Heart and duly published a few clips online.
He also runs podcasts and watches about 20 games a week, either in person or via livestream, broadcast or supplied footage.
Fruean charges a $5 per month subscription for his feed, though often bypasses this requirement in cases of economic hardship. At its peak, before moving to a subscriber model, he boasted 130,000 online followers, but said it is now “a fraction of that”.
Ironically, when Grammar announced its ban he had the school ranked as New Zealand’s best First XV and captain Stanley as the best schoolboy player.
Fruean said he would be more understanding of a ban on covering Grammar’s rugby exploits if it came from parents or players.
“If parents said it, it would be a different story. But I don’t think any rugby parent has ever come out and said, ‘we want to be locked down’.
“I think he [O’Connor] should have a conversation with his parents, offer them a vote on whether they want coverage for their players or not.
“Because as a parent, I would actually be offended if a headmaster said my top-performing child couldn’t be seen on a wider stage.
“It’s a big overstep. This is a new age where kids want opportunities. Our most talented kids actually want to be seen.”
Player management sources said having an archive of match footage was a critical part of landing a post-school rugby contract.
And Fruean said the feedback he gets tends to more often consist of complaints he isn’t watching some teams and players regularly enough.
“What are you [O’Connor] protecting them from? Because their mum told me, ‘hey, are you going to come watch my son?’”
He also struggled with the disconnect when compared with the attitude of schools outside of Auckland.
“Does he [O’Connor] really think all the other principals and headmasters in New Zealand, who have no problem with rugby coverage, are fools? How is it that everyone else outside of Auckland is out of step with him? Does that not strike you as odd?”
Fruean also said solely banning him would have minimal overall impact.
“A viral video online can come from anyone. You’re not stopping anything, bro. You’re not going to stop it unless you completely stop social media from coming to school.
“If this is being done for the kids’ protection, tell them no social media at all.”
On his Monday Morning Meeting podcast, Fruean addressed his ban.
Sharing the letter from O’Connor online was not to “out them”, but to explain to players, parents and supporters why he would be absent from future Grammar games.
“Parents and players from Auckland Grammar have asked me to watch their games,” Fruean claimed.
By publishing the email, he said: “They will understand I’m not the reason I’m not coming to the games.
“If he [O’Connor] thinks that it’s beneficial to his students [not to be filmed], then that’s up to him; that’s fine. The only thing I have a problem with really is that people want me at their games, which tells me they don’t care about being filmed.”
Fruean started the High School Top 200 in 2013, a school term after O’Connor became the headmaster of Grammar in 2012.
This year he has watched Auckland Grammar play New Plymouth Boys’ High School and Palmerston North Boys’ High School at Mountain Rd and Hamilton Boys’ High School and St Kentigern College away.
Fruean said he undertook his First XV coverage to fill a gap he felt was not otherwise being addressed.
There’s no denying his platform is popular if not polarising. His passion was even noted in O’Connor’s email, where Fruean was described as a “keen supporter”.
Meanwhile, Auckland Grammar possibly enjoy the most storied sporting history of any boys’ school in New Zealand.
In rugby alone, they have won three times as many 1A titles as their next rival, three National Top Four crowns, and produced more All Blacks than anyone else in the country.
A Google search of Grammar sports legends immediately spits out All Blacks Grant Fox, Sir Wilson Whineray and Doug Howlett; Olympic gold medallists Hamish Carter and Sam Webster. The school also produced cricket icon Martin Crowe, whose idea it was to first televise First XV rugby matches on Sky TV in 2010.
– On Saturday, at 2.30pm, Auckland Grammar host Sacred Heart in First XV rugby. In 2023, despite a 1A media ban, Sacred Heart old boys commissioned a documentary about their championship-winning team that featured match footage from throughout the season and later featured on Sky Sport.
What others are saying
A broad range of responses to Fruean’s ban were expressed in online forums.
For the ban
Catherine Bygate: “They’re children playing a game and being filmed without their parental consent. Then that film is being published on a website for anyone to view and use the footage for whatever they like. Absolutely appropriate to put this ban in place.”
Aroha Spreckley: “Well if you’re going to high school kids’ games and filming them when they’re not related to you in any way, you’re pretty creepy. Especially if their guardians and school ask you not to.”
Keri Hokai: “Maybe because he ranks school kids and sells the information for a subscription – kids under enough pressure already – a few videos don’t hurt but being ranked individually every week and profiting off it might be the tipping point. Mr O’Connor has kids’ best interest at heart always.”
Clare Farrell: “So parents can livestream/video/photo and put it online so anyone can see.”
Alana Harvey: “As a teen mum, I’d be super p***ed if my daughter’s sport was being filmed without the school’s knowledge. This might be heavy-handed but I can absolutely understand where they’re coming from. At the end of the day, these are kids.”
Against the ban
Harbour Rugby: “This isn’t how we run things here at Harbour. If you’re a local creator, we want you to capture your club or school’s memories!”
James Bailey: “Interesting to see the different opinions in NZ. Here in South Africa we have Supersport Schools TV which anyone can access. They livestream as many schoolboy games across the country as possible from U14 to 1stXV and include the lower teams in each age group. So even young Kobus playing in the U15D team has a chance of being on the telly and the kids and parents love it.”
Rangi Hawkins: “Some of the players would want the extra free exposure, to enhance himself. Some schools rely on social media exposure to allow themselves opportunities to push various agendas… Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Mark Weenink: “It’s always open to appeal in 40 years’ time.” (Mark is lampooning some members of the 1988 Auckland Grammar School rowing team who have recently lodged a legal appeal about their second place finish at the 1988 Maadi Cup regatta.)
Ncs Alpha: “Trust me, someone will find a way to film them. Next they’ll ban cellphones.”
Middle ground
Scott MacLean (long-time Wellington rugby referee, administrator, writer and enthusiast): “I’ve dealt with Herschel plenty of times over the years. We don’t always agree about what it is that he does, but he’s straight up about it. Equally though, if AGS (or any other school) believe they need to exercise their duty to protect their students then they should. And school grounds are not public spaces, they can restrict access if they so choose.”
Jason Palmer: “There’s not a clear answer here. Protection vs exposure. On one hand you have a school trying to protect kids from being turned into content machines at 16-17, on the other hand, everyone has phones. It’s inconsistent when some filming is allowed but other filming gets shut down.”
Disagree with anything here? We welcome alternative viewpoints. Email us at nzschoolboyrugby@gmail.com.