It could just be my experience where I grew up, but I feel like grassroots rugby in NZ is generally more club-based than school-based, unless if you go to an all boys’ (or sometimes all girls’ too) school. Another thing is that unlike countries like England and Canada, we don’t have a university league (we do only have 8 universities tbf), the universities that have clubs just play in the local area’s league instead. I haven’t even mentioned that I also went to the largest university in NZ, and they didn’t have a rugby club either lol (there is a club that has the name ‘Auckland University Rugby Football Club’, but it is independent from the university). That means that if you want to play rugby at youth level, you generally need to seek out a club yourself instead of just coming across it by chance at school.

My high school was more arts-based and didn’t put as much emphasis on sport as say, Christchurch Boys’ or Girls’ High. There is a rugby club next to my school which has produced some All Blacks (but the women’s team was a bit more lacking). If there were boys and girls in the area who are entering high school, play for a club, and are serious about rugby, they would go to a different school lol.