Familiar names - and a Legend - line up for Division

Former Legend Sasha Acheson lines up for London and South East seniors at the weekend in their bid to win the second women's Divisional Championship. Sasha and her team-mates have already seen off the South West, and this weekend meet the North in Sheffield.

It has to be said that - for a tournament that is the nearest thing to New Zealand's NPC, and which should offer a level of rugby only one step below the national squad - the RFU/RFUW don't exactly make much of a fuss about this tournament. Indeed, if it was not for the efforts of someone at L&SE, who occasionally puts press releases out, we might never know it was happening at all. How hard is it to publish previews and match reports? I'm sure if we could have reliable coverage from the centre then ScrumQueens for one would pick the tournament up.

We often complain about the lack of press coverage women's rugby receives, but in the end even the most supportive media can only publish what they know about!

Full L&SE Team

And in local news...

Congratulations to Sydney Gregson for being selected again for the U18 divisional squad (see Herts Blog for full set of names).

No great surprise, because she is brilliant, but I think it is still worth saying as getting into the Divisional team - especially for London & South East - is always pretty impressive. And - although she now wears a different club shirt - once a Legend, always a Legend!

• And while on the subject of successful former Legends, its worth recording - for those who did not know - that apparently ex-Legend Jess Robinson is now captain of Loughborough University, even though she is only in her second year. I suspect many people may have know it already, but I didn't - and I think that its an achievement worth recording. Well done Jess!

Sydney double sees off Midlands

Syd had a great weekend at Hartpury College with the Divisional U15s, it seems. All squads rotated their players so no-one got to play in all three games, but Syd made the most of her chance to impress national selectors by scoring two tries against Midlands Division, who had previously beaten the South West and looked like they might go through the day unbeaten.

Sydney's tries put an end to Midland's hopes, with London & South East running out 17-0 winners.

The tournament did not have a "winner" as its aim is to spot talented players rather than identify the leading division. The best 30 players from the four squads will be given special coaching over the summer. Whether Syd will be part of the "TDG" (Talent Development Group) will hopefully be revealed during the week.

From a concerned coach...

I received the following today, in response to the article earlier this week about the leagues. Its far too long to go as a comment - and also far too important (its also disturbing that people still feel the need for anonymity when criticising RFUW):

From a concerned coach

Over the last few years as more and more girls teams sprang up, unofficial leagues had sprung up to accommodate these teams. There were two distinct types, highly competitive leagues between clubs able to field full teams, and cluster leagues where teams clustered together to get enough girls to play a game. Not all the country was covered and not all the leagues worked particularly well. There was a county programme with counties finding their own fixtures and some running successful tournaments and there was a regional programme that had developed really well and culminated in an excellent tournament at the end of the year. In summary something fun to keep grass roots going and something more competitive to develop the talent. It did have a few problems in the way it took chunks out of the fixture list for those that didn't move up the ladder, but overall it was successful and fulfilling for the girls.

Adjustments could have been made to it to continue its evolution. However, in one go at the end of last season the RFUW got rid of the lot. Every team was told they would need to enter a RFUW league as none of the old ones could continue. Although it was not compulsory to enter, teams felt obliged to enter to ensure fixtures. Teams reluctantly did this without knowing playing numbers in case they couldn't find fixtures Teams were placed in leagues and corresponding fixtures were published, but it was evident from the beginning that many of the clubs registered didn't have the playing numbers to fulfil the fixtures, or were not at the playing level of other teams in the league.

In prior years lists of teams were published in categories relating to the number of players. These clearly showed few clubs with large playing squads and many who would struggle to field a 7's team. The league rules were lifted from the Women's league where there is a structure for relegation and promotion, something that is not present in the girls leagues and not appropriate. The additional try bonus point system also encourages teams to rack up points, something that doesn't help development. This has led to uncertainty in the league winners list published on the Letchworth Blog. In fact although some of these teams currently top their leagues now all the games have been played, the RFUW will be adjusting some points and in some leagues there will be new winners. Leagues also cause problems to teams emerging during the season, how do they find fixtures when clubs already have a fixture list in place? So we see in many leagues vast discrepancies in results and in many cases teams not playing a single game. What has happened to these clubs and their girls? Some have clearly folded, girls have quit rugby for other sports. This has been detrimental to the development of the girls game. Hopefully some clubs will return.

What leagues do is introduce competitiveness. Often this is due to the egos of the coaches involved, but witness the introduction of junior leagues in Boys' rugby. This has had an effect on fixture lists, relations between clubs and the development of boys as winning is vital to avoid relegation. At least with the boys' leagues there are enough to have promotion and relegation to ensure teams are in a fairly competitive environment. This is not the case with girls rugby as there are not the number of teams to do this. Examination of the effect of the introduction of the men's leagues shows a similar problem. Many clubs now run fewer teams. Clubs have folded as playing numbers diminished and old club rivalries were lost as teams moved up into different leagues. There is now a large influx out of the lower leagues into merit tables to find the lost ethos that competitive league rugby destroyed.


We need more girls in rugby and more clubs, the base needs to be very broad to support the ultimate goal of a successful world cup winning England team. However, that elite few need to be supported by a fun rugby many. There should be a fundamental principle that club rugby is about developing girls and supporting the growth of and increasing the number of clubs. We do not want to see the emergence of super teams who attract the best players in each county and who de facto become the county team. We want to see clubs growing numbers and new clubs emerging. The strength and support for a competitive league structure with promotion and relegation is not there yet. Concentration should be on growing the base. The leagues should be more flexible to allow new teams to join during the season. Try bonus points should be abolished, with a simple 4 points for a win 2 points for a draw and 1 point for a loss. Games should automatically stop after a margin of 30 points and a new game started with more evenly matched sides. Stronger clubs should be supporting the developing clubs as it is in their long term interest. Alternatively the old merit table idea could be used of ranking teams by the number of games they have won as a percentage of the games played against other teams in their league, so late joiners are not disadvantaged.

The move to Divisional rugby from the regional rugby has been good news for clubs as fewer girls are lost on average. But the divisional structure needs to be sorted out especially at U18 level. Are they going to be like the U15's a couple of practice matches then a tournament, or like the Women a simple league where everybody plays everybody else? My preference would be for a tournament at both U15 and U18 because the girls really enjoy them.

More competition needs to be introduced at the County level. The CB's throughout the country need to be running county girls. Within each division there should be one or two leagues and teams should play each other to win these. This would be a replacement for the sadly missed county festivals from prior years. It would also give divisional coaches the chance to watch girls in competitive games and help them select the divisional nominations from each county instead of the nomination mess that happened in some divisions this year.

Girls are not boys or women! They need to be coached slightly differently. They play the game slightly differently and they need a different structure to support it. One size doesn't fit all.

RFUW announce new junior festivals for 2011/12

The 2011/12 junior calendar has been published - and there are some rather interesting developments:

LEAGUES 

• These carry on, needless to say, pretty much as before. 
• There is some slight hints about maybe future tightening of entry requirements - lines like "if you have struggled for any reason as a club consider if it may be better for you to play friendlies" would seem to suggest some concerns based on the number of walkovers this season, for example. 
• The closing date for applications is 20th May, with fixtures published on 1st July
• The U15 league  will be for up to 10-a-side teams (minimum 7), U18 games for up to 15-a-side (minimum 12)
• 11 Sundays listed between 2nd October and 15th April... which also implies leagues no larger than six clubs (several this season had eight).

Comment: The trouble remains that this all betrays a lack of understanding about how junior clubs work. Most clubs will not have much idea about how many players they will have next year - least of all at U15s - and whether a club has struggled (or not) this season is no guide whatsoever to what they will do next season. I guess RFUW would argue that they need an early entry deadline to organise the leagues. And that is true - but it just goes to show that the system itself is wrong for the game as it currently stands. It is more sensible, surely, to design the system to match the game, not bend the game to match an inflexible system?


COUNTY RUGBY
Much as this season - one training/selection/development day (25th September), two matches (16th October and 6th November), and a County Festival (or festivals?) on 20th November.

DIVISIONAL RUGBY
As above. Trials will be 22nd January. U15s get a match (19th February), two training sessions (12th February and 25th March), plus a festival (1st April). U18s also train on 12th February, then play three games on 19th February, 18th March and 1st April.


NATIONAL SEVENS
Returns to a reasonable date (it was originally planned that this year's 7s would have been next weekend!), and two weekend are set aside for "local tournaments" in the lead in. Which is good - RFUW have clearly learnt that there are some rather successful independent events (like Herts 7s) that need preserving.

REGIONAL CLUB FESTIVAL
This is new (or maybe not, actually). Basically on 22nd April 2012 there will be "five festivals held across the country - clubs can choose which they want to attend. This festivals will be split for developed club and developing clubs". No indication yet whether these will be for 15s, 13s or 10s or what - but what is striking is that this sounds very like the good old National 10s which were also based on "festivals held across the country" where clubs could "choose which they want to attend".

One might ask "why five??" (when we have four divisions), but the main matters to watch for will be how sensitive the RFUW will be to existing 10s festivals played at this time - like Worcester and Worthing. If they have any sense (and sensitivity) they will bring these into the structure - the trouble is that words like "sensitivity" have not really been  associated with Twickenham decision making in the past...

However, that quibble aside, this is a great idea. It'd be nice if there were more, spread across the season, as everyone loves a festival, but its a start. And if they work maybe they will be extended!

U20 FESTIVAL
And finally, you never saw this coming. Truly this is from way left-field and opens stacks of questions (and cans of worms), but could be great.

Trouble is that - apart from being planned for the "Easter holidays" - there are no other details, least of all who could play in such a non-standard age group competition. In theory it might allow some of the Former Legends (including the likes of Nikki and Natalie) to pull on the Black and Amber again, but how far wide will the age grouping go? Could 17 year olds play, even though they are technically still "juniors" playing alongside "adults"? Its all a bit strange - though (potentially) fun...

The whole calendar can be seen here

Syd goes for Divisional glory

Sydney is off to Hartpury College in Gloucestershire this weekend as part of the London & SE U15s team, who will be trying to win the first ever girls U15 Divisional championship at a two day Festival

Each division will play each other over three games 20 minute games and L&SE will be going into the competition with confidence having beaten South West 27-10 in a warm-up game last month - Sydney will be joined by two other Hertfordshire girls, Harriet Austin (Hertford) and Bryony Pomfret (Welwyn)

After this festival the best 30 U15s will be chosen to attend a special three day training camp at Wellington College in August.

The mysteries of national team selection

Many of the readers who have been following the performances of our Divisional teams on the county blog will have been pleased to see that the adult team won their title on Sunday with a clean 100% sweep over their rivals. On the same day the U18s remained unbeaten after two of their games, and are favourites to lift their title next month, while Syd and her Divisional U15 colleagues also looked good when they won their first match a couple of weeks ago.

This overwhelming dominance by the country's largest division (in terms of players and population) is probably no great surprise... or maybe it should be if you've been watching the performances of the national U20 team.

Take a look at their last squad. Ten of the starting 15 for the game against Scotland were from the South West, and 11 of the overall 22. London & South East provided five players, three of whom began on the bench.

Now check-out again where South West finished in the Divisional championship - yep, last. The U18s have done slightly better, drawing with London & SE and narrowly beating Midlands - but that is a Midlands team that lost to North, who L&SE blew away this weekend.

Admittedly, L&SE have Maggie Alphonsi in charge of them - and it is more than likely that she is both a genius on and off the field - but even so... its all a bit odd...

Syd helps London & SE to historic win.

News from Syd that she played all of the second half for London & SE Division in their historic first ever U15 fixture, which they won - beating South West 27-10 at Newbury. This means that London & SE teams remain unbeaten at all ages, and have recorded two wins and a draw over the South West.

Which, considering how many South West names there are in the England U20 squad (and how few London & SE players) is pretty impressive!

Syd didn't score (quiz question - when was the last time Sydney failed to cross the line in a rugby match?) but reports that she did come close of a number of occasions.

Our first Divisional star!

Sydney will be off to Newbury on Sunday to take part in the first ever Divisional U15 game, when London and the South East take on the South West.

Syd is one of only two Hertfordshire girls in the Division's squad for the game, and will start on the bench - but she can expect game time as this will be the U15s only warm-up game before their festival at Hartpury on 16/17th April, after which a national training squad will be selected.

This will be the third London & SE squad to play the South West - the seniors won 15-5, and the U18s drew 15-15.

News from the Divisions

Information about the new Divisional Squads remains somewhat thin on the ground of late, but at last something has emerged.

Last weekend the senior divisional teams played their first games, and with ex-Legend Sasha Acheson - now of Hertfordshire, Saracens, UWI Cardiff (and anyone else whose shirt she can borrow, no doubt - no change there!) - in the starting XV at prop, London & South East won their inaugural match against the South West at Newbury last Sunday (February 13) by 15-5 with tries by Natalie McClarnon, Tina Lee and Hannah Gallagher.

The U18s - with five Herts players in the 22 - kick off their season against the South West this weekend, while the U15s (with Syd, hopefully) will play against the same opposition on 13th March.

However, as is the way of things, the Divisional programme seems to have undergone some changes in recent weeks, with both the U15s and U18s now building toward a festival at Hartpury on 16/17 April (rather than just the U15s, and in May). Also the latest fixture list doesn't seem to include any games for any North or Midlands U15 teams, but that may just be an oversight.

Super Syd gets the call

Up to the minute news -Sydney Gregson is in the London and South East Division U15 Squad! She now embarks a series of training sessions and warm-up matches leading up to the first ever Divisional Tournament on 1st May.

Divisional Trials: From our own correspondent

Syd is back from trials and reports...

"Just had the trials! They were really good - good competition! There were some really talented girls there! 

There were about 90 girls, and they are putting through about 30! First we had a warm up playing rugby netball and running, then played a 13 aside game full pitch, then some contact training, then decision making and passing then to finish it off we had 13 aside games on half pitch! 

There were loads of England people there and Maggie [Alphonsi] was there too! But yeah it was a good experience! We should find out within a couple of days who's in."

Syd on trial

Our Sydney Gregson has been selected for the trials for the first ever girls divisional squad.

After the county matches before Christmas, county coaches were asked to put forward the names of their best players for these trials. The Divisional Talent Development Officer for London and the South East then looked at all of these county reports, and then started writing some letters.

These started arriving today - so if you have not heard anything it does not mean you are not in, you could still hear next week. No list of all selected players has been published - so we don't know (and chances are the county coaches will not know either - they never did in the regional days).

Its is quite an achievement to get this far - remember there are only four divisions now instead of 11 regions, so its probably harder to get into the divisional trials than it was to get into the old regional squads!

The trials are on 23rd January at Hampton School in Middlesex.

Across the Irish Sea

When the girls section was formed in 2004 we thought about possible tours and - as there were plans for the boys to go to Ireland - we looked at whether the girls might join them. Nothing came of that for the simple reason that there was very little girls rugby in Ireland. The IRFU's website had no mention of it at all, and when we wrote to them the result was silence.

Then in 2007 an English club did go on tour there. Worcester's tour made headlines on both the IRFU and RFU websites, as well as in the local press, as the took on (and beat) county and provincial select XVs.

Since then the expansion of girls' rugby in the Emerald Isle has continued at a fantastic rate - its pretty unlikely that a single club could beat an Irish province today. The latest event was an U15 game played at the Aviva Stadium - the new Irish national stadium built to replace Lansdown Road, featuring girls from two local clubs (pictured above).

Its another example of how junior rugby in the rest of the British Isles is starting to catch up with England. The reorganisation of junior rugby in Wales around four or five years ago has resulted in a noticeable improvement in their teams - an effect that had reached the U20 team last season, when they beat England. Scotland have also been working hard with their junior rugby as well, and will be fielding their first U20 side this year. Ireland can only be a couple of years away - which could potentially give us a junior "Five Nations" before the next World Cup comes round.

The next step for England is the move to divisional rugby. This should produce a much tougher level of rugby for leading junior players than the old regional system (where the level of rugby in recent years had not been than much higher than county rugby). Trials for the first divisional squads will take place at the end of the month. It'll take a year or two before the results feed into the national squads, but there is a chance that some of the players selected this year could be playing for England at the next World Cup - or even for Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics!