The Last Word: Oamaru, birthplace of rugby legends

• Don't be too quick...
Nothing gets people's dander up quite like secondary school sport.

You can call Graham Henry every name under the sun, rip the Silver Ferns to shreds and tear into Stacey Jones, Beatrice Faumuina or Murray Mexted and barely an eyebrow will be raised.

But be careful when you dip your toe into the delicate world of school sport.

The Otago Daily Times won few fans at my alma mater, Waitaki Boys High School, recently when we ran a story on a Waitaki-Otago Boys First XV clash that (regrettably, because three paragraphs were deleted) omitted any mention of Waitaki players.

Reporters sometimes miss the impact their paper has on the local community, but in this case I couldn't miss it.

At least five people were keen to have a friendly chat last week when I attended the Citizens Shield final at the ground most still like to call Centennial Park.

It appears we also raised some hackles recently when we ran a story on the excellent new Highlanders First XV competition and the ability of smaller schools such as South Otago and Dunstan to field players from other schools.

Some of the good folk from Balclutha and Alexandra feel they have been unfairly accused of stacking their teams.

And they have my support.

• . . . to condemn the country schools
It's time for a little clarification. The Dunstan First XV includes just two players who do not, at present, attend the school.

One comes from Maniototo Area School and one is from Roxburgh Area School.

Both have played for Dunstan for years, and both attend schools that are far too small to field their own teams in the competition.

They get a chance to play, and Dunstan, which has never had more than 20 kids stripped for a game, gets a moderately strengthened team.

Does anyone seriously have a problem with that? Are you going to tell the parents of the boy from the Maniototo that by giving up hours every week to ferry their son to and from Alexandra for training they are somehow contributing to a rort of the system? Please.

South Otago, which has had the most memorable year in the school's history and will never forget its great win against Otago Boys, also offers boys from tiny schools the chance to play First XV rugby.

In its squad this year, South Otago had dispensation to field two 17-year-old ex-pupils (who both played for the school through the grades), two boys from Blue Mountain College and one each from Toko and the Catlins.

These aren't imports, in the classic sense of the word.

South Otago didn't spot some monster prop at another school and poach him for its First XV.

They're kids from country districts who want to play at the First XV level and can't do that for their own schools.

Other schools - Verdon, Gore, John McGlashan and Kavanagh - also have dispensation to field ineligible players.

But South Otago, no doubt because it topped the standings after the round-robin, attracts all the criticism.

You'd hope any discontent about the smaller schools using outside players will quickly die.

And you'd hope bigger schools - especially those that recruit widely from other schools and the country - could put aside their own ambitions to see the bigger picture.

The Highlanders First XV competition is a great concept and, if it continues, should contribute to a strengthening of the grassroots of Otago rugby.

• The birthplace of legends
What do Richie McCaw, Fred Allen and Hayden Meikle have in common? You know, apart from their rugby brains? All born in Oamaru.

Actually, nine All Blacks were born in the jewel of North Otago, which I learned when accessing some of the fascinating lists on the surprisingly good allblacks.com website.

There are the tallest (Mark Cooksley, 2.05m), shortest (Ponty Reid and Percy Tetzlaff, 1.60m), heaviest (Jamie Mackintosh, 130kg) and lightest (Reid, Ginger Nicholls and Merv Corner, 59kg) All Blacks; All Black brothers, leading scorers and plenty of other lists.

The All Blacks born in Oamaru are McCaw, Allen, Ian Hurst, Bruce Hunter, Colin Gillies, Bob Barber, John Gardner, Fred Given and "Scobie" Hay-MacKenzie.

• NFL clamping down on tweets
It seems professional sports teams in the United States are reluctant to embrace the new media.

Twitter - the growing online craze that allows anyone from your neighbour to famous athletes to offer brief opinions or news updates, known as tweets - hasn't quite taken off here compared with something like Facebook but it is huge in the US.

Everyone from Shaquille O'Neal to Michael Phelps offers their thoughts, and anyone who signs up for Twitter can sign up to read their posts.

In Shaq's case, it's well worth it, as he is very clever.

Some athletes have gone so far as to tweet from dressing rooms or even during games, and many have let important news slip without waiting for their teams to release it officially.

That hasn't gone down well with the major teams, who are fighting back in the Twitter wars.

Many NFL teams have barred players and reporters from using cellphones or laptops to tweet during pre-season training.

The San Diego Chargers even fined cornerback Antonio Cromartie $US2500 ($NZ3770) for using Twitter to complain about the food at training camp.

I occasionally use Twitter (twitter.com/bigmeiks) but the most high-profile and regular user in the Otago sporting community is champion cyclist Greg Henderson (twitter.com/Greghenderson1), who has nearly 2000 followers.

Henderson was tweeting from the hospital this week as he and wife Katie welcomed their first child, daughter Charlie Margot.

A day later, Henderson wrote: "Just got my first ever Dad badge. Charlie threw up the bottle I just fed her. On me."

• Mayor whacking girls with sticks
Oh, not really. Don't believe the headlines. Peter Chin is taking a break from raising our rates to help out at a fundraiser for the Kaikorai Valley College First XI girls hockey team tomorrow evening.

Mr Chin, along with parents and Otago rugby players Sean Romans, Chris Noakes and Sam Hibbard, will form a team to play a game against the girls at the McMillan Centre turf at 5.30pm.

• What's your team?
You might remember the series we ran last year called My Team, in which assorted football fans wrote about their clubs and why they loved them.

Al Banks got to pretend Manchester City was important, Adam Binns got Burnley noticed for the first time in 33 years and Nigel Benson took a break from writing about Nicaraguan poetry to get all teary-eyed about Arsenal.

We want to renew the series, this time for fans of all sport.

If you love the Boston Celtics, or the Gold Coast Titans, or the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the Chicago Cubs, or the Detroit Red Wings, or even the Highlanders, we want to hear from you.

Football fans are welcome again, even those who like Manchester United. Email the address below with your name, team and contact phone number.

- hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz