All Blacks squad: Hamilton Boys’ High, Francis Douglas Memorial contribute the most players to first squad of 2025
Sunday, 29 June 2025
Lessons took a back seat for Thomas Kalin and his year 13 class at Francis Douglas Memorial College, around noon last Monday.
Teacher and students - including a few from the school’s first XV - were glued to the live announcement of the All Blacks squad, as NZR chair David Kirk worked his way through the alphabetical list about 45 minutes away at Coastal Rugby Club. “Du’Plessis Kirifi,” was met by a huge roar and loud applause at the TV screen.
“We were waiting a while for the ‘Ks’ to come up and when his name got read out the boys were pretty pumped,” Kalin says.
It meant four Francis Douglas old boys in Scott Robertson’s 33-man squad after the three Barrett brothers, which matched Hamilton Boys’ High School’s quartet Cortez Ratima, Noah Hotham, Quinn Tupaea and Sevu Reece as the most represented school.
When Kirifi finally makes his test debut against France in the coming weeks, he will be the New Plymouth college’s seventh All Black after the Barretts, John Mitchell, Conrad Smith and Liam Coltman.
For a roll of around 550, compared with approximately 1600 of arch-rivals New Plymouth Boys’ High School (whose honour roll of All Blacks is 25), Kalin reckons they punch well above their weight. He is assistant coach of the first XV which stands firm on Tuesday and Thursday training, compared with other school teams who train up to five times a week.
“We’re not a traditional rugby programme school. No All Black is created at the age of 13 in my eyes. Sometimes parents can get mixed up in that,” Kalin tells the Sunday Star-Times.
“There’s no specification, there’s no walking in the door at year 9 and ‘you’re a rugby player’ or ‘you’re a basketballer’. Being a smallish school, sometimes those athletes have to play a number of sports, so they develop the whole skillset.
“Our participation rate after school, whether it’s at club level or to go higher, the boys seem to want to continue to play. Whether that’s because the pressure of a professional environment hasn’t been there at a young age… but I don’t know if there’s one secret.
“We’re lucky to have a family which has three boys that are outstanding, and another lad that’s been extremely determined and worked hard to get where he is.”
Kalin played centre in the 2014 first XV outside fellow boarder Jordie Barrett, with Kirifi a powerful loose forward who sometimes even switched to halfback. They toppled New Plymouth Boys’ that year for a rare, prized victory.
“You were definitely happy to be on Dupey’s side, when they had the ball. He would smack some big boys around. And Jordie just had an outstanding skillset, kick off both feet and pass off both hands, offload, defensively playing outside him you knew that nothing was going back through the channel. It was pretty cool.”
By then the All Blacks were well on the radar at Francis Douglas. When Jordie was in year 10, older brother Beauden made his test debut against Ireland.
Recalls Kalin: “I remember Jordie bringing an All Black sock to English class and we thought we were pretty special wearing that sock around class. Now you’ve got about 78 of them…”
This season under head coach Leo Crowley - who guided Wellington to the 2022 NPC title - Francis Douglas beat NPBHS for the first time since that 2014 victory, with a late kick.
They have some budding stars like powerhouse No 8 Luteru Isaia and prop Samuel McIntosh, and will face the top Counties Manukau school in the Chiefs region semifinals on the road to the national top-four finals in late August.
In the All Blacks squad to face France, Cambridge’s St Peter’s School (uncapped prop Ollie Norris, Samipeni Finau and Cam Roigard) and Christchurch Boys’ High School (uncapped lock Fabian Holland, Anton Lienert-Brown and Will Jordan) are the other schools with three or more.
Holland made the big move from the Netherlands at age 16 and made an instant impact at CBHS. When the 2.04m giant makes his debut, Holland will boost CBHS’ tally of All Blacks to 45, second only to Auckland Grammar School’s 52. Rieko Ioane is the sole AGS old boy in the squad, while Japan-bound Shaun Stevenson was Grammar’s No 52 when he debuted against the Wallabies in 2023.
It remains a fraught business, listing a tally of All Blacks to a particular school. Grammar claims 54 All Blacks while CBHS claims 47, for example.
The closest to a definitive list comes from NZ Rugby on its allblacks.com website, which defaults to the last school a player attended. Former prop Wyatt Crockett is the anomaly here, listed at Nelson College even though he completed his final year at Otago Boys’ High School.
In the current squad Tamaiti Williams is listed as St Kentigern College, which he attended on a scholarship in his final year, not Kerikeri High School. Similar with Codie Taylor, who made his name at Horowhenua College before shifting to Feilding High School which produced the Whitelock brothers and Aaron Smith.
Reece and Emoni Narawa - who was included as injury cover - were both educated at the sporting powerhouse of Queen Victoria School in Fiji before being lured to New Zealand on scholarships to Hamilton BHS. Uncapped midfielder Timoci Tavatavanawai completed his schooling at Queen Victoria and played for Fiji Under-20 before trying his luck in New Zealand with Tasman in 2021.
Current All Blacks squad - last secondary school attended
Hookers: Codie Taylor (Feilding High School), Samisoni Taukei’aho (St Paul’s Collegiate, Hamilton), Brodie McAlister* (Shirley Boys’ High School).
Props: Ethan de Groot (Southland Boys’ High School), Tamaiti Williams (St Kentigern College), Ollie Norris* (St Peter’s School, Cambridge), Tyrel Lomax (St Edmund’s College, Canberra), Fletcher Newell (Rangiora High School), Pasilio Tosi (Rotorua Boys’ High School).
Locks: Scott Barrett (Francis Douglas Memorial College), Patrick Tuipulotu (St Peter’s College, Auckland), Tupou Vaa’i (Wesley College), Fabian Holland* (Christchurch Boys’ High School).
Loose forwards: Samipeni Finau (St Peter’s School, Cambridge), Ardie Savea (Rongotai College), Du'Plessis Kirifi* (Francis Douglas Memorial College), Christian Lio-Willie* (Massey High School), Luke Jacobson (Cambridge High School).
Halfbacks: Cam Roigard (St Peter’s School, Cambridge), Cortez Ratima (Hamilton Boys’ High School), Noah Hotham (Hamilton Boys’ High School).
First five-eighths: Beauden Barrett (Francis Douglas Memorial College), Damian McKenzie (Christ’s College).
Midfielders: Anton Lienert-Brown (Christchurch Boys’ High School), Jordie Barrett (Francis Douglas Memorial College), Rieko Ioane (Auckland Grammar School), Quinn Tupaea (Hamilton Boys’ High School), Billy Proctor (St Pat’s Town, Wellington), Timoci Tavatavanawai (Queen Victoria School, Fiji).
Outside backs: Caleb Clarke (Mt Albert Grammar School), Sevu Reece (Hamilton Boys’ High School), Will Jordan (Christchurch Boys’ High School), Ruben Love (Palmerston North Boys’ High School).
Injury cover: Dalton Papali’i (St Kentigern College), Emoni Narawa (Hamilton Boys’ High School).
* Uncapped
Schools to produce the most All Blacks (most recent in brackets)
52: Auckland Grammar (Shaun Stevenson)
44: Christchurch BHS (Will Jordan)
35: Wellington College (Lima Sopoaga)
25: New Plymouth BHS (Reuben Thorne)
23: Christ’s College (Sam Darry)
22: Nelson College (Leicester Fainga’anuku), Southland BHS (Ethan de Groot)
19: Otago BHS (Richie McCaw), Timaru BHS (Cullen Grace)
18: Sacred Heart, Auckland (Hoskins Sotutu)
16: Palmerston North BHS (Ruben Love)
15: Hamilton BHS (Noah Hotham), King’s College (Josh Ioane), Mt Albert Grammar (Caleb Clarke), Whanganui Collegiate (Stephen Perofeta)
* Source: New Zealand Rugby (based on last secondary school attended)