No rugby at Herts Youth Games

The good news is that - despite the cuts in government funding, and North Herts threat towithdraw all expenditure from it, Herts Youth Games will take place this year, and North Herts will have a team.

The bad news is that rugby will not be included in this year's Herts Youth Games for - I think - the first time in... well, since before the Letchworth Girls team was formed, so that would be "ever". Coming at a time when the RFUW is pushing the new U13 game as being a simple game ideal for schools its a decision that can only be described as a shade odd as you would think this would be a great chance to showcase this marvel. Oh well...

For anyone who has not taken part in HYG, and is aged under about 14 (or 19 if you play bowls...) there are still 11 other sports, and trials in many of them will be taking place in the next few weeks. If you get the chance to take part, don't miss it. More details at http://www.north-herts.gov.uk/news_display.htm?id=55056.

• There is a certain mad irony that the sport chosen to illustrate the HYG 2012 website is tag rugby! ( http://hertsyouthgames.co.uk/)
• The sports replacing rugby seem to be bowls and cheerleading. I think this development defies comments except... cheerleading???? Cheerleading???? What next - ballroom dancing??

Double blow for schoolgirl rugby in North Herts

Threatened cuts to School Sports Partnerships nationwide have been well covered in the press and on TV in recent weeks - a scheme that has been a very significant effect on introducing girls to rugby in the county (most of the inter-school tournaments would probably have never happened without our local schemes), however news in this week's Comet could result in an even bigger blow, especially in our area.

If the report on Page 2 is correct, North Herts District Council will be withdrawing all funding from Herts Youth Games - presumably from 2012, if not 2011. Even leaving aside the huge irony involved in cancelling support for the biggest local multi-sport event in the same year that the Olympics are taking place less than 40 miles away, this could have a major effect on rugby in schools - especially primary schools.

Herts Youth Games includes tag rugby tournaments for both boys and girls - indeed overall the Games tend to favour girls sport, with significantly more girls events than boys, providing support at just the age when many girls start to give up sport. What is more by having a girls rugby event in a male-dominated sport like rugby it encourages girls to try out a sport that they might never normally consider.

Yes, its tag. Yes, the current HYG is a U11 event which doesn't quite work with current RFUW age bands, but anything that puts rugby balls in the hands of schoolgirls cannot be bad. And every spring just about every primary school in the area puts together a boys AND a girls team, and takes part in at least one - often more than one - tag tournament, with the top girls going into the North Herts team.

The question and worry must be that - without that HYG goal to aim at - will schools bother? And if they do, without the carrot of a girls competition, even if they do will they bother putting together girls teams, or involving girls?

And - of course - it goes without saying that Letchworth Girls would never have come into existence without Herts Youth Games.  HYG works on so many levels - it would be a huge blow if it disappeared.

Rugby at Herts Youth Games under threat

Rugby at Herts Youth Games - its where we came from, and remains the biggest and most effective means of getting girls to onto the rugby field. We might debate the age ranges - would a return to U14 instead of U12s better mesh in with current age bands? - but without question if tag did not exist in Youth Games schools would not enter the many tag events around the county in anything like the numbers they currently do.

But it is strongly rumoured that the RFU (note - not RFUW) no longer believe that U12 tag fits in with their development plans, ie. their plans for the development of (presumably) BOY's rugby. So this could be the last year we see rugby at HYG  (or, come to that, every other Youth Games in the country).

This is no great surprise - if they aren't playing contact by 12 then there is no hope for boys to move into club rugby - there is no exit route for them from tag into contact rugby. Most boys' clubs will have enough players at the U12 age band already able to play contact without seeing the need to set aside time to introduce complete beginners.

But none of that applies to girls. For the most part we expect no previous experience - for girls rugby we just want girls keen enough to give the game a go. Most girls start at 12+ - it would be nice if it was not so, but no-one in officialdom is doing much to counter the loss of girls between 9 and 12. Any development plan for GIRLS must be based around introducing them the game between the ages of 12 and 14 - and Youth Games is perfect for that.

So - will those running Youth Games in the UK listen only to the male-dominated RFU? Or will they realise that the interests of girls are different? 

There is hope - cricket is now girls only at HYG, so (if the boys don't want it) maybe rugby could stay, even if it has to be a girls only event?

Please pass your views on this to Tony Marmow at herts.scm@ntlworld.com, who is running this year's event, copied in to Leanne Fair Leanne.Fair@north-herts.gov.uk (if you are in North Herts) or your local organiser if elsewhere.

Herts 16-19 County Youth Games

The only downside with Herts Youth Games is that there isn't much for anyone over the age of about 14. However, this also about to change as a new HYG for older students will be taking place on 26th March. 

Its all a bit vague at the moment, and it won't include rugby (shame!) - indeed you will not be allowed to play a sport that you already participate in at club level. However, I thought it worth mentioning as I am sure that most of you would relish the opportunity to:

• a) get a day off school
• b) have fun doing various sorts of sports and games, for free!
  

Someone from North Herts School/Sports Partnerships will be contacting your school very shortly to see if they are interested and work out which sports your school might provide teams for... so if you fancy a free and active day mucking around at the University of Hertfordshire's Sports Village make sure your PE department knows you are interested. Now!

Simon Hill : Letchworth Girls coach 2007/8

Just over 13 months ago, the girls at Letchworth Garden City RFC were introduced to their new coach for the 2007/8 season : Simon Hill. It was quite a day for everyone - not least because we all had to get to know the whole new language of Quasi-English (or Kiwi, for short). In the early days it was not unusual to see a training session grind to a halt when Simon called out a fresh instruction (at least for long enough for the girls to get an explanation of what he'd meant). It also took a while for Simon's more abrupt style of language ("... if you do that again I'm going to kick your arse!") to be fully appreciated. Like most significant changes, it takes a time to understand how things are going to turn out .....

Simon continued the inclusive approach of previous coaches Joe and John to make sure that all of our players get as much match time as possible while taking part in as many tournaments as we can and striving to do well in them. Individually, taking part remained the main ethos with the team striving to improve their performance collectively. In doing this Simon involved several first team players in coming to the girls training sessions to help them improve specific aspects of their play and this has had a major influence not only on the standard of play but also in building friendships across the club which is fantastic for the girls teams. The results certainly reflected the 'team performance' approach with the majority of good performances coming toward the end of the season. Overall, it was a mixed bag of victories and defeats (played 38, won 17, drew 3, lost 18) but there was a collection of good results in the major tournaments and the occasional trophy along the way :

RFUW Divisional 10s : 2nd
RFUW National 10s : 4th
RFUW London and South-East 7s : Plate runners-up
RFUW Herts 7s : 2nd
RFUW National 7s : 5th=

So, on the field, we saw the team working together better and better as the season went on. Meanwhile, off the field, Simon continued to impress with his vast array of special talents ..... for example, at the Awards evening, he showed himself to be the smooth, cultured chap we'd always suspected (you can see how pleased Wonky was by his expression) :

and who could forget the end of season party? Not just for the sartorial ellegance that threatened to overwhelm us all but mainly for the Haka that Simon and Mike performed ...

Quite a season ... but it doesn't end there. Simon is, we now know, always looking at the world and seeing how it could all be so much better so he is never short of ideas on what to do next. It's also just possible that a few people may have noticed that Simon has an occasional tendency to tell them in, shall we say, a forthright way if he thinks they are not getting things right! His attitude may well be summed up as "People do stupid things because they don't realise what a bad thing it is to do (in which case someone needs to tell them) or because they don't care (in which case someone needs to tell them that they ought to care)" Not that I've ever been known to have an attitude like Simon's, of course. Not me .......... well, not this week. So far ........

Anyway, Simon certainly 'got on with the job' himself : he coached the North Herts Tag rugby team for the Hertfordshire Youth Games, he provided coaching for secondary school girls in Letchworth and Stevenage, he organised a Tug'o'War team -

- and a touch rugby demonstation at Rhythms of the World -

- and he devised, organised and ran the Letchworth Schools Tag Rugby tournament which involved over 500 9-11 year old girls and boys at 6 different schools being trained and culminated in a 4 group, 28 team tournament at the Letchworth club in July. The feedback from all of these events has been great - the students, teachers, parents and sponsors have all let us know how successful they felt the events had been.

Of course, as it was the last event he was to be involved in this season, Simon also received a few gifts - a Wasps shirt and a Saracens shirt from the girls section and a bottle of something interesting from Katie who is similarly leaving the girls team this summer (in her case due to old age i.e. she's 18!)

So how do I sum up Simon? In Simon I see what I should have been more like when I was younger (... er, quite a lot younger in fact). I suppose I'd sum him up by saying that he is fun, honest, caring, generous, charismatic as well as being a complete looney ..... oh heck, he's just a really good bloke and the best mate you can have.

Today, Wednesday, I took Simon and Kirsten to Heathrow airport to catch their flight back to New Zealand. I'm really going to miss them. Fortunately, I won't have to miss out on the infamous text messages - I get more messages from Simon than from everyone else put together - and I'm hopeful that, eventually, I'll be able to understand one.

To Simon and Kirsten, I say "Thanks for everything you've done for us this year" and "Good luck" in everything you do in the future. I really hope that we will see you back in the UK before too long for there are many, many people who will miss you. Otherwise, we'll be coming out to Christchurch to find you!

Simon's small stars secure silver

News from Herts Youth Games where the North Herts U11 tag team that Simon and several of you have been working with on Tuesday evenings finished an impresive second, beaten by East Herts in the final.

On a very hot day the North Herts girls stormed through their group undefeated before the final - a big difference from last year's monsoon!

The challenge now will be to keep these new stars in the game...

Downpour fails to deter district U11 team

While the U17s were up in Lichfield the search for next "generation" of North Herts girls' rugby was underway at Hatfield in the Herts Youth Games.

For the second year it was an U11 tag tournament and for the second year it was a rather damp day. Admittedly not the continual drizzle of 2006 - there were gaps between the showers this time - but it made up for it with a thunderstorm at the end.

After some weeks of worry we eventually unearthed a good squad of girls, including four with plenty of contact experience - our own Philippa (captain on the day, as the only "survivor" from the 2006 tournament) plus the Beth and Kate Summerfield and Ales Stevens who all play mixed mini rugby at Hitchin.

In addition the district team also included Robyn Godfrey, Isla McLachlan, Alice Sunderland, and Emily Wallis - who have all played tag for their school - and Lauren Armitage, who came to U14 practice last Wednesday. So on paper a good side, and if we had managed to get them all together a little earlier than the day of the Games itself probably they would make a very good side!

Fortunately North Herts' first opponents - Hertsmere - pulled out, giving the girls time for a short training session before the first game against Watford.

The girls went down 6-4 to what looked a well drilled and experienced team, though a star was born in the second half when Alice came on and showed an incredible turn of speed to score two tries.

After a short break came the next game with Stevenage. As they had also lost to Watford this was in effect a quarter final and the team - now playing together well - overturned a 4-3 half-time deficit to win 7-6 and book a place in the semi-finals.

Their opponents here were East Herts - historically strong rivals in these games ever since North got them disqualified in 2005. East Herts had unearthed a big side who were clearly used to playing together and their strength overpowered the younger North Herts girls, who to their credit carried on running to the end, despite the odd bruise and bashed nose.

And so to the third place play-off. In now pouring rain a tiring North Herts team again could not quite match Watford, but as the thunder rumbled the girls kept trying to the end and were still in great spirits when the final whistle went, barely audible above the thunder.

So overall a creditable fourth place - very good for (in essence) a "scratch side" that barely knew each other before the Games. And apart from the four experienced girls who we all knew about, some really talented players emerged, and it can only be hoped that players like Emily, Isla, Robyn, Lauren - and above all Alice - will be able to give the "real" game a try next season. Anyone running a U12 mini team in the area should be seeking to sign these girls up straightaway!

North Hertfordshire U11 tag team

The final squad for Herts Youth Games is as follows:

• Lauren Armitage
• Robyn Godfrey
• Isla McLachlan
• Alessandra Stevens
• Beth Summerfield
• Kate Summerfield
• Alice Sunderland
• Philippa Theobald-Roe (captain)
• Emily Wallis
• Phobe Woolston

As you see - we have a full ten!

The tournament is at the Herts Sports Village - there is a map here. The tournament begins at 10.00, with our first game at 10.20. Please aim to arrive by 9.30 at the latest - earlier is possible - as it is likely to be very busy, and you may also have to park away from the Village on the Business Park and use the free bus service.

There is also a free coach from Letchworth and Hitchin, if you prefer to use that. Details should have been in the information you received this week - or contact Leanne Fair at NHDC.

Bring something to eat - though there will be some food to buy - and a coat etc. as you will be outside all day and the forecast doesn't look too good.

See you on Sunday!

U11 tag: final training and squad selection

The final training for the district U11 tag team is this Sunday, from 9am to 10.30. Apparently numbers were rather better last weekend so its looking good for the 13th.

We can only take 10 girls to the games, so if we have more than that we will have to select a squad and this will be done next Sunday (6th) - so it is important that everyone interested in playing comes along - and also that the U17 coaches come along too!

The other incentive, obviously, will be to see if we can get a game against the boys... and beat them!

U11 tag: Herts Yourth Games draw

The draw for the girls competition at Herts Youth Games has been made. Eight out of the ten districts have entered the girls tag (no St Albans or Dacorum - the latter also missing from the boys).

North Herts Girls have been drawn in "Section 1" alongside Stevenage, Watford and Hertsmere. Our games (on "Pitch 1") will be ...

• 10.20 v Hertsmere
• 11.00 v Watford
• 12.00 v Stevenage

After lunch there will be a series of play-off games starting at 1.40, with the final (if we get that far!) at 3.20. All games will be six minutes each way, with a one minute break in the middle.

U11 Girls Tag: Week 1

Thanks very much to the girls and coaches from the U17 squad who came along to Letchworth this morning - and for those who missed out there is still plenty of time to stake your claim for a place in the final squad.

Next Sunday U11 training will be at the same time - 9.00 to 10.30 - but will be run by Mike Allen and coaches from the boys' side of the club (though this will include at least one female coach, possibly two).

The final training session will be on 6th May - again the same time - after which the ten for the Youth Games will be chosen.

Herts Youth Games tag rugby

The first training/practice session for the the North Herts girls U11 squad will be at Letchworh RFC this Sunday from 9.00 to 10.30. We have about 12-13 names signed up, which is a pretty reasonable number.

If you were on the recent "Start Rugby" course this would be a great opportunity to do some practical coaching, all you would need to do is come to training on Sunday morning a bit earlier than usual.

And even if you missed that course these are potentially the next generation of players it would be a great help if you could come along.

I will be pushing you a bit more directly over the next few days...

Girls vs Boys

Training for the U11 tag team for this year's Herts Youth games begins on 22nd April (first Sunday back), running from 9am to 10.30 (ie. generally before the main training).

This is a great opportunity for those of you who have done your Level 1s or been on the "Start Rugby" course to put your skills into practice - so could I have some volunteers to assist on 22nd, 29th April and/or 5th May?

If you want a bit of incentive, the boy's tag team for the same competition will be training at the same time - and some practice matches are planned between the two squads. It would be kinda good if the girls could beat the boys (and they should, unless the boys team is full of "ringers") - and the more of you we can have inspring the girls on to greatness the more chance they will have.

Let me know what you can do to help.

Herts Youth Games: details confirmed

This year's Herts Youth Games tag competition is on Sunday 13th May from 10-4.00.

I appreciate that this affects virtually no-one except for the fact that I will probably have to be at Youth Games and not at the Aylesbury Festival, which is on the same day. This may result in some small transport issues.

We will be picking a tag team from about 20 Year 6 girls during April, when there will be about three training sessions for the girls (see fixture list for suggested dates... which may change!) - and it would be great help if I and Joe could have some help from any of our U17s (especially the coaches or those who will have been on the "Start Rugby" course) - or actually the U14s as well especially if we want to "convert" as many of the girls as possible to the "real game".

What with Easter in the middle of April fitting in those three dates is actually quite challenging, but at least one will be on a Sunday, and another maybe on a Saturday. Think about it and we'll get back to you....