RETIRED All Black captain Brian Lochore told players when he took over as coach of Wairarapa-Bush's bottom-of-the-heap rugby side in the eighties that their first challenge was to earn the respect of supporters. "I told them they had to look like a team; that self-confidence, self-respect would help determine how they played." It worked. The country boys earned the respect of their fans, their opponents, wound up in the first division of the national championship and Lochore went on to become an All Black selector and coach of the first winners of rugby's World Cup in 1987.
"Sure," he says, "I was demanding, but I don't think any of my demands were ones that couldn't be achieved."
"My idea of being a successful captain or coach is getting people to go further than they ever think they can."
And nothing has happened meantime to change that view. So said the big Hastwell (near Eketahuna) farmer as he prepared this week to became the commissioner, a one-man board of governors, at Greytown's troubled Kuranui College: "I demand certain standards of myself in everyday life. Why shouldn't I demand the same standards of people involved with Kuranui?"
Tough talk, prefacing some straight talking by Lochore when he fronted up on Tuesday night to an audience of about 200 representing a community almost as despairing and divided as the board dissolved a week earlier by Education Minister Lock- wood Smith. There was no use looking over their shoulders, he told them, and delivered much the same message he gave a dispirited bunch of rugby players in 1982: "Let's be positive."
There are many versions of the problems that have plagued Kuranui College over the past couple of years.
Though they may dispute the labels, the traditionalist, backbone-of-the-community faction has generally supported principal Joye Halford's management (she is also board secretary) and her vision of what Tomorrow's Schools' is all about.
The others, the liberals if you like, often disputed both but lacked the numbers to do much about it.
Their position should have been weakened further when a Maori representative was replaced and two new members were co-opted, one late last year, another in January. Instead, they gained support, and on some issues the board became equally divided.
The cruncher was the re-appointment to the board of a student representative who, with continued full voting rights, could have held the balance of power.
Some weeks ago the chairman used his casting vote to support the principal's and the traditionalist view and disenfranchised students. The next day the kids walked out and set the stage for dissolution of the board and the appointment of a commissioner.
Why Brian Lochore?
Well, there's a lot more to it than his sheer physical presence and his reputation as a rugby player and coach. Lochore, now 53, has a long record of service to the community in which he grew up, a community he says has been good to him. "In return I'd like to think that I've assisted them in some way. I'd like to think that I've earned the respect of local people through my efforts as a citizen, as well as a rugby player."
And it seems he has, though the two are inextricably entwined.
LOCHORE was raised on the family farm at Opaki, outside Masterton. He was a boarder at Wairarapa College, and, by his own account, an "average" student who couldn't wait to go farming.
He first made the All Blacks for the last of the grand tours of Britain and France (they also had a couple of games in Canada) in 1963. He missed selection the following year but became a fixture at No 8 and captain for the last five years of his career, till his retirement in 1970. "Funnily enough, it was never an ambition of mine to captain the All Blacks," he says. "My ambition was simply to be an All Black."
Lochore never regarded himself all that highly as a player. "I was a grafter, but I prided myself on being able to last better than most of my opponents. The game suited my personality."
What makes an All Black, he thinks, is determination to succeed. It’s much the same in farming, he says. "It's a very competitive world, farming. There's no use being average." What it takes, according to Lochore, is a lot of hard work, and lashings of common sense.
You can only suppose he's talking about himself (he's got a property in Hawke's Bay, too) when he says: "A guy with few brains but a lot of common sense can do very well."
Which raises the question of the widespread perception of All Black forwards as a bunch of jocks who are 20 centimetres between the eyes and correspondingly thick.
That angers - no, on second thoughts, it "frustrates' Lochore. "I think we [ex-All Black forwards] do have a little bit more going for us than some people perceive us to have. Some people, not as many now as once, feel the only thing you can talk intelligently about is rugby. Well, much as I enjoy talking rugby, I only enjoy talking about rugby to intelligent rugby people."
People in the Wairarapa recognised years ago that Lochore could talk intelligently about other things. They helped him win a seat on the electoral college of the Wool Board during the wool acquisition debate and elected him to the board that once administered Wairarapa and Makoura Colleges.
"I've never turned anybody down who's asked me to do something," he says. "But, frankly, I was surprised when I was asked to become the commissioner at Kuranui. I'm not a political animal and I certainly didn't take it on for the money. I said yes because I hoped that I could help and be cause it is a Wairarapa thing. I feel strongly about this district.
"I had no preconceived ideas, didn't know anyone on the board, so I felt I would be able to do what's required with an open mind, knowing how important Kuranui College is to southern Wairarapa.
"The importance of Kuranui is that it is the only thing that welds all the communities in the Southern Wairarapa together."
LOCHORE has started what could be a lengthy and major rewelding by getting back to basics. He has boiled the requirements for a fresh start down to three things pride, discipline and respect.
He has told students, parents, teachers, the community at large that pride in the school is vital.
"And discipline. I'm very strong on that. The school is not there to discipline pupils. That's the parents' responsibility, though the school must intervene sometimes, and will. "
"Parents at Kuranui, as in schools everywhere, can do a tremendous amount at home, just by talking positively rather than negatively in front of their children. "
"There must also be respect for the school teachers and authority. I think that's one of the problems that we have in this country, a general lack of respect for authority."
Lochore says that ultimately the election of a new board of trustees for Kuranui is his. He has no timeframe and none has been imposed.
Inevitably, he likens the challenge to rugby; particularly to taking on the lowly rated Wairarapa-Bush 15. "I enjoyed that, and I hope I can enjoy this too".
"I don't like making enemies. That's something I try to avoid. I may make some doing this job, but I'll be sorry if I do. I've got to do what's right for the majority of people. If they can recognise that, and give me the support I'd like, we'll get along fine."
Those who do not will either be foolish or very brave.
