
On The Up: Bay of Plenty squash players heading to Egypt for world championships
Six Bay of Plenty squash players are preparing to represent New Zealand in Egypt at the Junior World Championships.
Ella Hill, Erin Wyllie and Brooke Valois of Devoy Squash, Vihan Chathury and Jack Lord of Te Puke Squash, and Aria Bannister from Mount Maunganui, will travel to Cairo in July

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NZ Herald
7 days ago
- NZ Herald
Rugby must tackle its coaching respect issue after Milton Haig quits
This focus on high-performance coaching set-ups is a result of the surprise announcement on Wednesday that New Zealand Under-20 head coach Milton Haig, having steered the team to a Rugby Championship title a few weeks ago, has stepped down just days before the team is due to depart for the Junior World Championships in Italy. Haig, an experienced coach who has strong provincial experience in New Zealand, was at the helm of Georgia at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and has spent time with the Japanese club Suntory Sungoliath, said there were differences in opinion between him and his assistants about the team's style of rugby. He obviously felt those different views were irreconcilable and that, if he didn't have the support of his fellow coaches (Jarrad Hoeata, Alex Robertson and Craig Dunlea), it would be best for the team – specifically the players – if he fell on his sword. It was the honourable thing to do – a selfless act that demonstrated a recognition that ego and personal ambition can never be put ahead of the interests of the team. But can the same be said of his assistants, who, based on the facts as they have been presented, didn't seem to recognise that they were there to support and facilitate Haig's strategic vision and not impose their own? Milton Haig, when working with the US women's team. Photo / Getty Images Haig's actions may have been honourable, but the longer-term ramifications of a head coach sacrificing himself to appease his assistants are potentially significant and dangerous for the elite game. Whatever happened to sucking it up? To not liking something but doing it anyway because that's your job? There are workplaces across the country where people won't agree with the strategy being pursued by the boss, or don't particularly like their management style, but they get on with doing what is required and requested because this is part and parcel of being an adult and beholden to uphold professional standards. Rugby, to its credit, has tried to build collaborative coaching environments where assistants and specialists are encouraged to own their field, but perhaps there needs to be a re-evaluation in the wake of Haig's departure about how far down the track they want to go in this shift away from authoritarian regimes. There's room for assistants to be empowered, but not so much that they forget the subordinate nature of their roles. The best environments should operate with an element of professional friction, but not so much that the pushback undermines or disrespects the head coach's ultimate authority. Haig's unexpected decision to quit is not quite the isolated act it may seem. It marks the third time in as many years that a New Zealand national team has had some kind of dramatic and sudden shift in its internal coaching dynamics. In 2022, the Black Ferns were left scrambling to put a coaching team together only five months before the World Cup. Last year, All Blacks assistant Leon MacDonald quit after just five tests. MacDonald's departure was explained as a lack of compatibility between him and head coach Scott Robertson. Leaving aside the question of why this discovery wasn't made earlier, when they worked together at the Crusaders, it does suggest that there is a creeping problem of people thinking that their ambition to be a head coach should be catered for in any role they take. Something seems wrong with the wider culture – that there has been a failure to manage expectations, define boundaries and instil within all those entering the elite coaching ranks that teams need not only a clear hierarchy, but for that hierarchy to be recognised, respected and understood. New Zealand's great strength in previous eras was the ability of high-performance coaching teams to be able to disagree but commit. Between 2004 and 2011, when the three heavyweight figures of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith coached the All Blacks, the latter two didn't always agree with what the former was trying to achieve or the way he wanted them to do it, but they knew and respected that what they felt was ultimately not important. It was Henry's vision they were there to implement, not their own. Maybe now that a generation of Millennials is starting to win high-performance roles, that same ingrained respect for the hierarchy isn't there. Someone needs to get on top of this and restore order before every national coaching team is undermined or disrupted by the chaos that unfolds when there is confusion about who is in charge.


NZ Herald
28-05-2025
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Bay of Plenty squash players heading to Egypt for world championships
Six Bay of Plenty squash players are preparing to represent New Zealand in Egypt at the Junior World Championships. Ella Hill, Erin Wyllie and Brooke Valois of Devoy Squash, Vihan Chathury and Jack Lord of Te Puke Squash, and Aria Bannister from Mount Maunganui, will travel to Cairo in July


Scoop
21-05-2025
- Scoop
Squash Action Hits Courts For Auckland Open
Press Release – Squash Auckland The Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Squash Open gets underway, tomorrow (Thursday 22 May) at the North Shore Squash Club with some intriguing matches in the opening rounds. The men's PSA Challenger has first and second round matches on Friday followed by quarters and semis on Saturday and final Sunday while the women's Satellite runs Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The men's draw involves players such as Northland left-hander Freddie Jameson who was a finalist at the New Zealand Junior Open this year but is up against another teen in Auckland's Vihan Chathury who will be playing for New Zealand at World Junior Championships in Egypt in July. Gisborne-raised Willz Donnelly, Bay of Plenty's Glenn Templeton as well as Henderson's Apa Fatialofa and North Shore's Sion Wiggan against Korean seed Youngjo Ko are all on court in the first round. If matches go to plan top seeded 18-year-old Ollie Dunbar will play seventh seed Gianluca Bushell-O'Connor from Australia in the quarters on Saturday, Dunbar ranked 140 in the world would then have a likely semifinal against either fourth seed Camern Darton (Australia) or fifth seed Jooyung Na (Korea) on Saturday afternoon. In the bottom half of the draw Shamil Wakeel from Sri Lanka who is seeded second will face the winner of the clash between Malaysian teenager Harith Daniel and Taupo's Bryce McMullen in the second round The women's Satellite draw has Jena Gregory originally from the Hawkes Bay, as top seed and set to face Waikato's Sophie Hodges, the fourth seed in the semifinals if the draw works out. Second seed, Bay of Plenty's Winona Jo-Joyce could come up against third seed Emma Merson (Bay of Plenty) or four-time former champion Lana Harrison for a place in the final. The tournament runs Thursday 22 May – Sunday 25 May at the North Shore Squash Club with 170 entries across all divisions. All draws will be on the website.