Neill Baker has been on the sideline at Otago Boys' High School rugby matches for more than three decades. Rugby writer Steve Hepburn talks to the former teacher who is now enjoying retirement.
Neill Baker says spotting talent and which players will go on to bigger things is not simple.
Baker should know. For 35 years he has been involved with rugby at Otago Boys' High School.
He has spent countless Saturdays putting up the flags at Littlebourne, making sure pupils get on buses to go up country and even had time for some coaching.
He has seen the likes of Richie McCaw and Byron Kelleher come through the school and then go on to blaze a trail in international rugby.
He said McCaw was a good player when at the school.
"But you wouldn't have picked what he would have done. He was a bloody good flanker, make no bones about that.
He put on a lot of weight when he went to Canterbury. He was one of those guys who always gave you everything. He'd always have a bleeding nose.
"A good trivial question is 'who captained the Otago Boys' team which drew with Rotorua Boys in the national final in 1998?'. Most people think it was Richie but it wasn't. It was Ryan Martin, the halfback, who is now coaching our firsts."
Baker said players developed at different times and some took a while to get better.
"I remember Tom Palmer, who came to us as a Scottish exchange student and is now playing for England. When he first arrived he was a gangly, gumby, unco-ordinated guy. He used to slap the ball back 5m from the lineout. But in two years he started to show his skills and eventually made it into the New Zealand schools team."
Otago Boys' is a school where rugby is still important and Baker had been there since 1976. He retired at the end of the first term, though he still went to school games.
Never trained as a teacher, he fell into the job after completing a masters degree with honours in geography at the University of Otago.
He initially taught at Kaikorai Valley High School and Otago Boys' before journeying around the world for three years, and followed the All Blacks 1972-73 tour and went to the Munich Olympics.
But he eventually found himself back at Otago Boys', where he had previously been in the First XV in 1963-64 as a tight forward.
He taught geography but then moved into careers training.
His coaching career started at a young age.
"It started when I was at high school. I was looking after junior teams. I was never a prefect but part of my senior role was looking after teams. One of my neighbours was [former All Black player and manager] Charlie Saxton and I think him and the old man [Baker's father] wanted me to look after teams and keep me out of trouble."
When he got to Otago Boys' in a teaching role he coached junior sides and then took over the first XV from 1984-89, when the side enjoyed considerable success, scoring its first win for 20 years over Southland Boys in Invercargill in 1989.
Times, though, were different then.
"You'd never struggle to get coaches. Coaching was seen as part of your professional development. More emphasis was put on it by the principal. And I do not think the sporting range was quite as diverse. There was no ice hockey, all these other sports.
"And, dare I say it, the sex ratio wasn't what it is now. There are a lot more women involved at school now."
Baker moved on from coaching the First XV to the Otago Colts which was unbeaten for three years.
He then helped coach South Island age-group sides and national age-group sides.
"We beat the North Island under-16 side at Carisbrook, the first time for many years. We had [North Otago's] Ross Hay in our team. We had to pick the New Zealand team afterwards and they were all going on about this Mealamu [current all Black hooker Keven Mealamu] kid, who had played on the openside for the North Island. Raving about him.
"But I said, 'hang on, we've just won the game and had this skinny white guy rule at the breakdown and help us win the game. He had all the skin off his knees, run himself ragged. He'd never let you down."
Baker has helped run the Otago Boys' High School rugby club, and that involved plenty of work off the field.
School teams has gone out to the provinces, so bus travel was a big part of rugby, as was finding coaches.
Saturdays would start at 8am and finish after the final school game in the afternoon, and then he'd be worrying about all the buses coming back from across Otago.
Twenty years ago buses did not have to go inland to find games as there were enough teams in Dunedin to play.
"You'd just go down to the local park, play your game for a couple of hours, and then go home. Now you're up to Upper Clutha, down to Telford. It had to happen - there simply weren't enough teams. "
Baker said society had changed and he acknowledged rugby did not have the same hold on people.
"Rugby is not the main sport of every person any more. There is just so much more to do."
But it was still a big part of his life.
"To me the most important thing was seeing how guys develop and moulding them into young men. It was a thrill to see a young man develop and become a success in their life. They still give me a wave from their BMW and say 'hey Ox, how's it going?' "
Baker declined to name a First XV from all the players he had been involved with at the school.
"It's just too hard, really - too many to leave out."He felt former Waikato forward Richard Jerram was the unluckiest player he had coached to not become an All Black.
He denied Otago Boys' poached players from other schools, saying players eyed up the opportunities they could get at the school.
"These guys know who is going to come back next year and see they might be able to develop their talent at Otago Boys'. But we don't head-hunt, never have, never will.
"The Otago union has never tried to steer certain players to one school. Not like in other provinces where players are told what school to go to. Is that good for Otago rugby? I don't know.
"The one thing I would say is with the Highlanders competition we are back playing in an under-18 competition while we used to play in an under-20 competition and one year an under-21 competition. Now we are playing against schools which used to play against our Second XV and our Second XV is playing in the under-20 competition."
Local hero
- Neill Baker
• Age: 66
• Sport: rugby
• School: Otago Boys'
— Been involved in rugby at the school for 35 years, coaching junior teams, First XV and Otago age-group sides.
— Married with two children and four grandchildren.
