Rugby recruitment rumour downplayed

Press, 5 September 1988, Page 7

Rugby recruitment rumour downplayed

Suggestions that Christchurch schoolboys are being recruited to play thinly disguised professional rugby in Japan have been denied by the Christchurch connections of the Japanese company involved. The approaches have been made by Isetan, a Japanese department store, to schoolboys in Christchurch and Auckland. But the feelers were aimed at recruiting staff, and the fact that Isetan wanted boys with some sporting prowess was incidental, said Mr Chris Pickrill, managing director of Canterbury International. Isetan was trying “to give young New Zealanders a tremendous opportunity, but it has been blown up as a sordid sort of professional rugby recruiting drive. It is nothing of the sort,” said Mr Pickrill. The approach was to boys leaving school at the end of this year who did not intend going on to university. They would receive language training and work as-shop assistants for periods of up to three years. Mr Pickrill said that Isetan — a “very upmarket department store, very like Harrod’s” — was one of Canterbury International’s customers for items such as rugby gear. Like other major Japanese companies it was being encouraged by its Government to “look outwards” and recruit from overseas, and was keen to pick up boys with some sporting prowess —■ because of the success of the All Blacks’ tour of Japan, said Mr Pickrill. “If they are good enough, they might get a run in the company’s rugby team,” he said. A senior Isetan executive had come to Christchurch last month to discuss business with Canterbury International, and interviewed a number of prospective recruits. Mr

Pickrill had approached the coaches of some of Christchurch’s school First XVs to pass the offer on. He believed that at least four pupils at Shirley Boys’ High School, one at St Bede’s College, two at Christ’s College, and possibly one at Christchurch Boys’ High School had met the Isetan executive. The interviews were properly conducted, with the boys’ parents and interpreters present, and put greater emphasis on academic qualifications than rugby, said Mr Pickrill. The Isetan executive would be back within about a fortnight and might then make offers to some of the boys. Mr Pickrill denied a suggestion that one had already been offered a job, and he described as “highly inflated” suggestions that they would get between $20,000 and $25,000 for accepting the offer. The coach of St Bede’s First XV, Mr Gary Lennon, confirmed that he had passed on Mr Pickrill’s approach to his team members, advising them to discuss it with their parents. One had gone to the interview with the Isetan executive. He said that it would be “a matter of opinion,” however, whether it would be a good opportunity for a boy of 18 to commit himself to “even a year” in Japan. “There are pros and cons,” he said. It has been reported, meanwhile, that a member of the Christ’s College First XV is keen to take up an offer by a South African coaching school to play in Durban next season while studying at a college there. That was reported to have been organised through the boy’s parents.