Filming Sport

Seeking Glory

Achilles was honest. He valued kleos – imperishable renown - above a long and safe life. It was all about glory.

As he said

“My silver-footed goddess mother Thetis

says that there are two ways my death may come.

If I stay here and fight, besieging Troy,

my chance of ever going home is lost,

But I shall have a name that lasts forever

Or if I go home to my own dear country,

I lose my glory but I gain long life”

(Iliad Book 9 lines 530 – 536 trans Emily Wilson)

And here we are – still using him as an exemplar.

Achilles and glory occurred to me in an entirely different context and it is that of sport – in particular First XV Secondary School rugby.

Now there is a particular mysticism that surrounds sport. Especially school sport. Part of it derives from Henry Newbolt’s poem Vitae Lampada “The Torch of Life”.

The poem consists of three stanzas that emphasize facing adversity with honour, whether it is during a difficult cricket match or a deadly military skirmish.

“There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night --
Ten to make and the match to win --
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote --
‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

The sand of the desert is sodden red, --
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; --
The Gatling’s jammed and the Colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England’s far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:
‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

This is the word that year by year,
While in her place the School is set,
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind --
‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’”

Team spirit, school spirit, the game for the sake of the game. That was the ethos that underpinned sport. But I doubt it is the ethos now. One only has to look at response of the payer scoring a try in league or rugby or the man attempting to fly after scoring a goal in football. The unbounded expression of joy in the success of the moment. The wide-open shouting mouth. The gestures towards the crowd. Lost in the moment.

That is not about the team. That is about glory – that moment of ecstasy accompanying the achievement of an objective. And although the play may have been set up by others it is the player who crosses the line who gains the renown. All that flannel about the good of the team and the boys have done great is just for show. Like Achilles, it is all about glory.

At the moment there is a bit of a controversy about people recording (filming is an obsolete word in these digital times) First XV Secondary School Rugby matches and putting the product online.

It all started with a prohibition on the recording of Auckland Grammar matches played at Auckland Grammer’s Mountain Road campus.

Auckland Grammar breaking new ground by sending a “cease and desist” letter to a website that has broadcast brief social media clips of the school’s First XV.

Grammar have been the best rugby watch in Auckland this year but last week headmaster Tim O’Connor wrote to Hamilton-based Herschel Fruean, founder of the “High School Top 200” website, accusing him of filming the school’s First XV without permission.

O’Connor stated that Fruean did not have permission to film or photograph his students at any time.

“We are not permitting you to enter the Auckland Grammar School campus on Mountain Rd, to watch, film or photograph rugby matches, including this weekend.

This expectation will remain in place until the school is satisfied that you will not compromise the school’s expectations by filming or photographing the students in our care in any context, including premier sport.”

The Herald for 27 June 2026 reports that Fruean, one of the country’s leading reporters of First XV coverage, posted clips on social media of Grammar in action, most recently from their away win over St Kentigern on June 6, having duly ranked Grammar as the country’s best First XV. (I might say that I write this with ashes in my mouth given the drubbing Grammar inflicted upon Kings a few weeks ago)

But Mr. O’Connor’s problem seems to be with Fruen because the Herald and Photosport were also in attendance at the game. Photosport, an external photographic agency, features about 120 images of the game on its website while the Herald published a report of the game in the weekly First XV wrap featuring Photosport images. It seems that a majority of leading schools outside of Auckland proactively and publicly promote their First XV online in this manner – with some using media production and coverage as an educational exercise for students.

The Herald reports that Grammar old boy Harris Cameron defended O’Connor’s actions, saying he had the best interests of students in mind and it was different from parents similarly posting photos and videos of their children online.

“How would you feel if some random bloke showed up to your son or daughter’s rugby game and took a bunch of videos and photos of them to distribute across the internet on a public platform... where they can be accessed by the entire world.

I’m sure the kids wouldn’t want that, it could make them very uncomfortable and I think they are the people you should have in mind and about how this could affect them instead of whether Tim is in the right or not.”

Another commentator agreed, saying students were in the care of the school, which had decided it was better for the youngsters not to be filmed, and the mental health of Grammar First XV players should not be put at risk.

In contrast to Grammar’s desire to avoid coverage, the Central North Island, Super 8 and South Island First XV championships all offer live-streaming or television broadcasting of their matches. They have not identified privacy as an issue.

But the issue is not restricted to Auckland Grammar. School Sport New Zealand chair Tim Grocott, who is also principal at Shirley Boys’ High School in Christchurch, himself recently confronted one prolific Canterbury-based YouTube channel, Onside Rugby, asking them not to film their teams anymore. Indeed, Mr. Grocott believes that stricter rules over who can film school sport games should be introduced to protect the privacy and safety of young athletes.

Of course. If there is something we don’t like let’s do what we do in New Zealand – regulate.

However, it has been observed that the schools themselves were broadcasting the games online through the subscription-based streaming platform, Sportway. One would wonder whether the motivation is financial.

School sport is viewable stuff. Onside Rugby, a channel with almost 3000 YouTube subscribers and 12,000 followers on its social media accounts, has been posting top-level First XV matches to YouTube regularly since 2024. The promoter of Onside Rugby stated:

“Up until this season, no one seemed to have any issue with my work. And then the new South Island Boys’ School Network competition started. The headmasters of the new SIBS network decided to monetise schoolboy rugby,”

Mr Grocott says that the subscription SIBS charges ensures greater control of the footage and a return of revenue to the schools and their athletes. The participating schools are getting an equitable share of revenue to help them participate in that competition. His concern also is the reach that YouTube has – an open channel.

The problem the descends into the theatre of the absurd with Mr Grocott’s following reported remarks

“The risk that potentially exists for [school] boards around ensuring that we’re compliant with the harmful Digital Communications Act, the Privacy Act, all of those sorts of things, I think, have probably come to the fore with the increase in broadcasting of secondary school sport,”

The privacy angle has been referred to by the Grammar headmaster. But I think that Mr. Grocott is overegging the pudding by referring to the Harmful Digital Communications Act in the context of filming secondary school rugby.

But what emerges from the reporting of these issues is that all the commentary has been coming from headmasters of the schools involved. Nothing from the coaches and more importantly nothing from the players themselves.

I would be willing to bet they would love to see clips of successful plays available online that they can share with friends and family and bask in that moment of glory as ball and body go over the line.

But there are a number of issues that arise out of this matter.

The first is who is driving this and why. I am not willing to accept that it is simply a matter of privacy and player safety. Were that to be the real reason the ALL recording of the game would have to be prohibited and I can imagine that the parents of boys in the XV would have something to say if the iPhones had to stay in the car and the opportunity to share a moment of glory with the wider family were denied them.

And there is no suggestion that ALL recording is prohibited. So in that respect the policy – if there is a policy – is selective.

There is no doubt that the head of Auckland Grammar has the right to deny entry to any person or impose conditions upon entry to the school grounds. But if the behaviour of concern is that of recording a rugby match, then the prohibition cannot be selective if it is to be fair.

I have struggled to find any exclusivity of content that the school might have that would allow them to deny the recording of a rugby match. This is not FIFA World Cup territory with associated worldwide broadcasting rights – although in these times with a recent dispute about broadcasting with which I was involved perhaps a better word would be distribution or dissemination rights.

It is a five minute walk for me to go to Auckland Grammar School to watch a Kings-Grammar match.

So much for privacy – given that these rugby matches attract an enormous amount of interest not only from the immediate school community but the wider public, and given that the games take place in an area to which the public have access, an expectation of privacy on the part of the players would be limited indeed – and I doubt that any player who has reached the dizzy heights of what used to be called champagne rugby would want to play in an empty ground or stadium.

The expectation is that the game will be watched and that there will be a significant input of support from the sideline – although many sideline “refs” let themselves down in this respect.

Really what this fuss about “filming” is about is on the part of a group of adults who are struggling to monetise the games the school teams play. The players, of course, will not see a single brass razoo out of the process. But they will be deprived of that moment of Achilleaic glory that modern communications media allows.

Or perhaps it is on the part of a few parents who have enlisted the aid of the school to prevent the publicity that the games attract. Perhaps if they are that concerned for privacy and the welfare of their young men – they are hardly boys – they may like to revisit whether they should allow their off-spring to run out on the field.

Once again – have the participants been consulted on this if indeed this is the scenario? Theirs are the voices which have not been heard.

And they are the ones who seek the glory.

After this article was written and lined up for publication there was another article in the Herald (1 July 2026) about the issue which contained extensive comment from Mr Fruen, the videographer in question. Also interesting are the various comments for and against the actions of AGS - as well as those who occupy the middle ground.

In the article Mr Fruen makes the following point:

“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.”

And that last comment sums it all up. It about glory.