New Role for Top Coach

HBHS Deputy Principal Nigel Hotham was recently appointed to the coveted position of New Zealand Schools Rugby Head Coach.  He joins Year 12 Dean, Josh Hay, who holds the position of Assistant Coach.

 Mr Hotham commented on the changes that his new role has created:

 My role is to select and coach the New Zealand schools team to test matches this year against Samoa and Australia.  Also this year there is a B team attached to this role that trains under the name New Zealand Barbarians.  I think that’s a really special that both byself and Josh are involved in New Zealand Schools; it’s possibly the first time that two staff from the same school have had a chance to work together in these jobs.  We are responsible for naming the ‘B’ team as well.

 In terms of practical responsibilities, it means that we are involved in the selection process.  It is a little bit unusual in that it is a very long selection process for a very short programme.  It is about turning over every rock so that we can get the best squad that we can.  We get nominations from the franchise areas; the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Bulls, Crusaders.  The nominees go to a franchise camp of about fifty or sixty players on the first week of the holidays.  There will be about 300 boys attending those camps in total.  From that 300, they’ll be narrowed down to 120 boys.  We then view them through to the beginning of September; when a group of fifty will be selected to attend a weekend camp.  We take those fifty away to camp and we select the New Zealand Schools and Barbarians teams from there. 

 At the end of September we play a test match against Samoa.  The week after that, we play a test match against Australia at King’s College in Auckland.

 What are your continuing ties to rugby at Hamilton Boys’ High School?

 Due to potential conflicts of interest, it’s appropriate that I have taken a step back from 1^st XV coaching at HBHS.  Greg Kirkham has taken over as head coach.  Carl Hoeft, the ex-All Black, has made a very timely move to the Waikato and has become the assistant coach.

 What does the future hold for you?

 I don’t have a master plan, as such – this is something that I’ve thought about for a while and the opportunity arose.  I’m very excited about grabbing that and running with it at the moment. 

 What is your on-going involvement with the Sevens and Touch?

 I limit myself to just the school teams as far as the Touch season is concerned.  We try to qualify and win the Nationals every year and we’ve got a fantastic group of boys who will be particularly strong this year.  We have qualified for this competition again in 2012.  Rotorua beat us in the drop-off at last year’s final, but we’ve played them already in the regionals and beaten them 11 – 5, so that team has really taken a step forward. 

 Sevens is going to grow a lot now at school level because of New Zealand’s involvement in the Olympics in Brazil, in 2016.  It’s also been encouraged by the likes of Old Boys Joe Webber, Kylem O’Donnell and Glen Robertson who have been involved in the New Zealand Sevens.  The Condors tournament will help grow New Zealand Sevens.  It is sponsored now and they fly teams to the tournament, so you get representation from right throughout New Zealand, and much stronger competition as a result.

 The sevens clash a little bit with touch; in Term 4 we’ll be running the seven team and touch team through to both of their national competitions, which end up one week apart.  That is not ideal, because we’ve got some boys there who will be competing in both.

 I still have an involvement in both of these areas.  I enjoy keeping an overview of the senior rugby teams of the school, and having an involvement with the coaches.  I’m still involved as a resource person with the senior teams during the week.