Growing Rugby in WA

[Darren]

Rugby Union continues to grow in Western Australia with the 2012 Bankwest Junior Rugby competition boasting a 10% growth in numbers since 2011.

There are now over 4,000 junior players in 250 teams taking to rugby fields each weekend across Perth and in country regions in the U6 to U16 age groups.

RugbyWA has been working hard to ensure rugby continues to grow through the Development team who have been taking rugby programmes to schools and running numerous sevens, 10’s and the traditional 15-a-side tournaments on a regular basis.

As Rugby is a unique sport that requires players of all body types it is becoming more and more popular for young children in WA and encourages them to get active and live a healthy lifestyle.

RugbyWA Manager Community Rugby, Andrew Hill, said that while the numbers of WA children participating in rugby grew significantly with the inception of the Emirates Western Force, there is sure to be another increase in interest with the addition of Rugby Sevens to the Olympics from 2016.

“There are many forms of the game in Sevens, 10’s and Super Rugby so there are plenty of options for kids to choose from,” he said.

“Children can start participating from an early age and there are carefully researched pathways in place to ensure children are learning at a pace appropriate to their age and in a safe and fun environment.

“It is fantastic to see so many Western Australian children getting into this great game.”

After a three week break for the school holidays, the Bankwest Junior Rugby kicks off again this Saturday, 28 July

Click here to see the fixtures

http://www.westernforce.com.au/NewsE...2/Default.aspx

[Alison]

A great news story :-))))

[Pacman]

Nice article - again solid predictable growth in WA. Ex-pats from NZ, RSA, UK & East states etc will always keep the numbers going in the right direction.

The suburban clubs are the backbone of WA Rugby and always working their butts off for their Jnrs, just need to restructure the Snr Comp so the suburban clubs can keep the momentum going and somehow earn the right to go up an grade or two.

RWA flying their flag at u6 for the first round is very good, however still more is needed there. Also a focus on retention in 15s & 16s (league is a hugh problem) and bring the PSA boys onboard under 1 Comp' instead of two weakened Comps in this age group.

FYI - Club is far superior to PSA across the board!!
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[Eel]

Junior rugby is growing in WA - in spite of the Western Force and RugbyWA!

[Alison]

Junior rugby is growing in WA - in spite of the Western Force and RugbyWA!

Shame it's not 'because of', hey?!

[normie]

Catch 22. The local comp isnt considered as strong as Shute shield, so most of the Force players go to Sydney at the end of Super 15. With the Force players going to play in Sydney the growth of the local comp suffers....

[phantom]

My first post but it needs to be said

Sounds great but it is sad that the real heroes behind the 4000 member success of Junior Rugby in the Metro area does not get recognised in this article.
Those unseen people are the volunteers and Junior club people from around WA They are represented by the WAJRU Executive council ( Western Australian Junior Rugby Union)
The WAJRU are the controlling body for Junior Rugby in WA. There is a service agreement between RUGBYWA and the WAJRU that allows RUGBYWA to run the Junior competition, however the WAJRU consists of 9 executive members( all volunteers from club land) that makes the decisions and pay the Junior Rugby bills. RUGBYWA coordinate the day to day runing of the competition and that is all.
The success of the 4000 members in Junior rugby does not lay with RUGBYWA hosting rugby clinics in Kalgoorlie and Karatha It is hard work among club volunteers that has grown the numbers to what it currently is.

A few years ago when all was not cool in junior rugby a member of the RUGBYWA board stood up at the Junior rugby AGM and said that RUGBYWA wanted nothing to do with Junior rugby but now that the sun is up and there are some money in the Junior Rugby bank account suddenly RUGBYWA are the knight in white armour.

[Burgs]

Tonga- Pre-teen Male Players: 3090 + Teen Male Player: 1290 = 4,380
Georgia- Pre-teen Male Players: 1765 + Teen Male Player: 2133 = 3,898

Do we compare?

[MLCrisis]

I am moved to one of my occasional forays into your midst on this forum, so please treat me gently!

Firstly, I cannot agree more with the praise expressed for the volunteers behind Junior Rugby. They do a massive, massive job. I would also like to include in that the huge amount of work done by the referees' Junior Coaching and Appointments Board, who do fantastic work in bringing on new referees through the Junior ranks.

Now - growing the game in WA. My impression from treading the paddocks here for 20 years is that the vested interests (i.e. the Western Suburbs clubs) have no interest in developing rugby in the expanding Perth metropolitan area. ARKS, Joondalup and Southern Lions manage to survive despite the WARU Council, not because of them, from what I have observed. Ask Southern Lions what happened to most of their 18s from last season after they were removed from 3rd Grade Gold competition at the beginning of this year.

I believe that the only way to grow rugby in WA is to expand the 1st Grade competition. We should have two new clubs in it asap, with a goal to have four new clubs in it by, say, 2017.

"Oh, Lordy, that would mean more games per season!", I hear them cry. For God's sake, my playing season in the UK was 30 games on average, with a minimum of 28 and 32 to 34 if you did well. Whereas here, our molly-coddled players do 22 games, at most. We need more 1st Grade clubs. Otherwise, where will all of these junior players go?

Stop prevaricating, WARU Council, and expand the competition. Have you learnt nothing from watching the AFL's steady march? There might be some pain and blowouts in results, but if you create the opportunities, the players will come.

Did you guys never watch Kevin Costner???

Bah humbug.

[Invictus]

MLCrisis - hear hear! Expansion is a must. Then the whole thing (the national rugby landscape) needs to be tied together with a national competition (warning: you will get very tired of hearing me say this).

BTW - kudos to all the rugby volunteers, junior and senior. Without them the game would be in a sad state.

[The Oracle]

Brendan old chap, I agree that you appear to be having a mid life crisis and will therefore treat you gently.

"Ask Southern Lions what happened to most of their 18s from last season after they were removed from 3rd Grade Gold competition at the beginning of this year." What did happen, did the players disappear from rugby or did they go to Premier Grade clubs?
Are they lost to rugby is my question?

[KenyaQuin]

I love Saturday. Saturday mornings are junior rugby mornings. For those who haven't had an opportunity to witness it, Britannia Oval (Central JR competition) is a sight to behold. Kids of various ages, colour (both in uniform and skin), shapes running all over the place, most excited to be there.

I have the benefit of having two children playing which normally means that between my kids' games I get about 1hour plus to watch other age-group matches and it always amazes me the potential on exhibition.

Simple fact of the matter is we need a NATIONAL SECOND TIER COMPETITION. Bring back the ARC. Under that, we should have a JUNIOR ARC. Yes, it will cost shitloads..but without that sort of investment, these potential one-day Wallabies will continue to be lost to other codes and/or computer games/chicks/booze. It gives me the shits and I'm a bloody All BLack supporter!

[Invictus]

I love Saturday. Saturday mornings are junior rugby mornings. For those who haven't had an opportunity to witness it, Britannia Oval (Central JR competition) is a sight to behold. Kids of various ages, colour (both in uniform and skin), shapes running all over the place, most excited to be there.

I have the benefit of having two children playing which normally means that between my kids' games I get about 1hour plus to watch other age-group matches and it always amazes me the potential on exhibition.

Simple fact of the matter is we need a NATIONAL SECOND TIER COMPETITION. Bring back the ARC. Under that, we should have a JUNIOR ARC. Yes, it will cost shitloads..but without that sort of investment, these potential one-day Wallabies will continue to be lost to other codes and/or computer games/chicks/booze. It gives me the shits and I'm a bloody All BLack supporter!

... and womens and 7's both mens and womens, etc, etc....

[DinkyDi]

The whole idea of expanding the premier grade is the only way to keep players during this transition from Juniors (age grade) to Seniors. Even at U20s, the retention rate is poor as there are limited opportunities for the lads to crack the current first grade teams.

This however, flies in the face of another thread started by good old RM, who wants to consolidate and as such restrict the chances for those coming up. Give more the chance and more local talent will rise.

[Political BS]

Dear Phantom,
At the WAJRU AGM a couple of years ago the outgoing WAJRU committee put a motion to wind up the WAJRU and transfer all its responsibilities to RugbyWA. Apart from doing that without consulting RWA and getting their agreement to taking on the Juniors, this would have left Junior Rugby in turmoil.
The official you refer to was speaking against the wind up motion and said that Junior Rugby would be better served by having its own Committee rather than relying on the RWA Board who did not have the same capacity to focus on matters of serious importance to the parents and clubs of Junior players.
To portray that as RWA not wanting to have anything to with Junior Rugby is simply silly and a distortion of the facts.
Furthermore in the lead up to that AGM RWA had been approached by concerned people who were demanding to know why RWA was trying to put the Juniors out of business and take their money. It needed to be made clear that nothing could be further from the truth!! RWA was committed to a strong and viable WAJRU going forward. Thankfully the motion was defeated and WAJRU was able to elect an excellent President and Committee who are doing a fantastic job.
WAJRU pays RWA for the running of the competition, but RWA provides a number of services such as development, junior elite coaching support, financial and accounting services etc... free of charge to the Juniors. WAJRU pays RWA $150K the costs of services provided by RWA is in excess of $300K.