There is now, following St Kentigern College's commitment to sanction the playing time of pupils recruited last year from non-Auckland schools, a sense that the city's 1A schoolboy competition has reset its moral compass by committing to a universally agreed code of conduct.

St Kents has long been cast in the role of arch villain – accused of taking a Lex Luther approach to schoolboy rugby where it has been willing to do almost anything to be successful.

When it recruited five senior pupils last year for the express purpose of bolstering its First XV, it was deemed by 10 of the other schools in the 1A competition to be a gross breach of school sport ethos even if it wasn't in fact a breach of the existing competition rules.