One aspect of New Zealand rugby has arisen this week that I think has dramatic implications for the game here and represents the latest aspect of professionalisation of the New Zealand game. It needs to be addressed, perhaps by New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rugby authorities.
It was highlighted by Tongan-born schoolboy sensation Taniela Tupou's decision to play his rugby in Queensland and possibly for Australia.
Increasingly, as the professional age grows, younger players are having to make massive decisions about their futures at a very young age, an age when many of them are not ready for it.
A lot of these kids are 17 or 18 and being tapped up by agents left, right and centre. They are being promised the world by those agents and invited to sign contracts when it should really be against the law.
I would love to see a law enacted whereby kids can't be approached under the age of 18 without parental consent. I know there are employment issues if a player has left school, but rugby could go out on a limb and have laws that sit inside that.
Perhaps agents should need a license to operate or NZR brings in some sort of boundaries, or maybe it is the school boards or the NZ Secondary Schools' Rugby Association that needs to step in.
We are a bit of a Wild West in New Zealand because professionalism is so new. But it is important that we look after the kids who are not really old enough to make a decision that will impact on the rest of their careers. That advice is not readily available and it needs to be, because there are too many people out there wanting to make a buck out of them.
Good guidance is crucial in this process but there are a lot of pitfalls. If a player wants to go to Australia, fair enough, let them go because there is always another player coming through. But if a player chooses to go to league he needs to choose to stay in league.
A classic example of what can happen is North Harbour's Matt McGahan. He was a revelation coming through the grades in rugby but opted to go to league. Now he has come back and missed two years of rugby development. He can't push his claims for higher honours because he hasn't quite learned his trade. There is no rite of passage. If you are going to choose something at the age of 18, for a quick buck or whatever, bear in mind that if it takes away from the five or 10-year plan that you should have in place, by playing a different code or playing for someone else, you will need to start at ground zero when you come back into that original environment.
You have to understand that players see pathways, whatever they might be, but the onus comes back to the players to be sure of what they choose to do with their careers. The last thing they should have in mind is dollar signs or quick bucks. They need to have that five-10-year plan rather than something that 'works for me today'.
If you look at the All Blacks squad now, how many of them deviated from their programme at the age of 19 or 20 and then decided to come back to rugby? None, and for them it was never going to happen. If you step off the conveyor belt, you are off. And if you ever want to come back to rugby you have to go to the back of the queue. Because there will be kids who have stepped up and taken your position when you come back in. The game is evolving so quickly - the laws, the tactics - and if you are not up with that you miss out.
In making the decisions for their futures these players have their parents as their first port of call. The rugby agents' interests need to be assessed - does he want to make a buck out of the kid, or does he really want to develop the kid? That's where kids have to choose, and their parents have got to help them make the right decisions about what they want to achieve.
At the very least they need to work out a five-year plan, because if they just want to chase the dollar they will end up a car crash, just another player, a number, sitting out in no-man's land.