RFUW plans next season

Details of the groupings for next seasons U15 and U18 leagues are out. Letchworth are not included - and are not along. The number of leagues in both age bands has shrunk significantly - down to six in both cases. North Eastern teams are particularly notable by their absence, and clubs from the South West are also rather thin on the ground:

U15 leagues:

	North		Midlands		Central
1	Tyldesley / Waterloo	1	Melbourne	1	London Irish
2	Liverpool St Helens	2	Hinckley	2	Welwyn
3	Eccles	3	Old Northamptonians	3	Berks Baa Baas
4	West Park Leeds	4	Spalding	4	Worcester
5	Vale of Lune	5	Wellingborough	5	Paviors
6	Manchester	6	Vixens	6	Oxford
7	Northwich	7	Ashby	7	Oxford Vale
8	Glossop	8		8
	South		London North		South East
1	Oakmeadians	1	Lakenham Hewett	1	Medway
2	Solent Sirens	2	Thurrock Chicks	2	Guildford / Camberley
3	Ellingham and Ringwood	3	Newmarket	3	Folkestone
4	South Sussex Barbarians	4	Rochford Hundred	4	O A Saints
5	Aylesford Bulls	5	Ealing Jades	5	Hertford
6	Swanage and Wareham	6	Saracens	6	Hackney

U18 leagues:

	South		North		Central
1	Oakmedians	1	Tyldesley / Waterloo	1	Paviors
2	Solent Sirens	2	Eccles	2	Lichfield
3	Ellingham and Ringwood	3	Preston G / Vale	3	Welwyn
4	South Sussex Barbarians	4	Manchester	4	Worcester
5	Aylesford / H 3	5	Bridgnorth	5	Berks Baa Baas
6	Swanage and Wareham	6	Liverpool St Helens	6	Oxford
7		7	West Park Leeds	7	London Irish
8		8	Glossop	8
	Midlands U18		London South		London North
1	Old Northamptonians	1	Thanet W	1	Newmarket
2	Aylestone St James	2	Folkestone	2	Lakenham Hewett
3	Sleaford	3	Medway	3	Thurrock Chicks
4	Hinckley	4	Guildford	4	Rochford Hundred
5	Vixens	5		5	Ealing Jades
6	Melbourne	6		6	Saracens
7	Eccleshall	7		7

Beyond that plans for the U13 band continue to exist in some strange parallel world. RFUW insist the new age band will be launched in September, despite there being...

• No coaches trained to teach the new game
• No referees trained to officiate the new game
• No school PE departments trained to offer the game (only six weeks to the end of term...)
• No sign of the promised DVD illustrating the new game (due to have been circulated last month)
• No documents of any sort, beyond the self-contradictory draft rules issued a few weeks ago
• No answer to many requests for information about the supposedly successful trails carried out last year
• No evidence that any girls involved in the above trials have moved into the U15 game

I could go on. Its like watching a runaway express train thundering down the line to certain doom, except in this case its fully manned by people quite capable of putting on the brakes but determined to go ahead because They Know Best.

What is even more remarkable is when you look at the cause of this..., well "lunacy" would not be pushing it. Overall rugby has lost players about 16% of its players over the past four years - but all of the loss seems to have been among adults. Junior player numbers (leaving aside one strange result in the 2008-9) are almost unchanged:

Once a month participation in rugby union, 18-19 year olds:

2007-08 - 34,600 players

2008-09 - 50,200 players

2009-10 - 35,600 players

2010-11 - 35,200 players

So its all very odd. Nothing seems to be being done to make changes the adult game where the "problem" is (and truth be told the loss of players will be entirely a men's problem), but instead RFUW are training their guns and risking all on the one area of the game where things are going quite well.

That is assuming it is a problem with rugby at all. Of 86 sports and past-times surveryed, 46 show a loss of players - and many are doing far worse than rugby. Rowing, weightlifting, rugby league, water-skiing, gymnastics - they have all lost over 30% of their players. What are the big gainers? Walking, body building, rafting, caving, cross training, judo, angling... If there is a theme here at all, it is a move from formal, organised sports and team sport to informal, individual past-times. It is a change affecting most sports, and is probably nothing to do with the nature of the sports and everything to do with how much spare time people can commit.

Its certainly nothing whatsoever to do with the physicality of rugby union!

Women's international rugby: its a hard life...

As the German team at last weekend's Roma Sevens demonstrate...

Rugger Girls: Part 24. The final chapter

2000s: VIVIAN AND NATHALIE

24th and final chapter of the summary of the history of women's rugby in France, from the book "Rugger Girls"("Des Filles en Ovalie"), written by Jacques B. Corti and Yaneth Pinilla Foreword by Serge Betsen. Published weekly(ish) by French women's rugby blog Des Filles en Ovalie.

After going back to Bourg in 2001 to lead the Violets, Viviane Berodia also encountered a new game. She worked for the Post Office as well as being a first division coach. This could be a good combination, and consistent with the history of generosity and altruism that had typified women's rugby. But times change.

She said by the time she left she was facing  problems which involved envy, jealousy over the outcome of trials and failure to achieve international selection, and a lack of passion. "Honestly, I do not blame the effort that was being put in. But when the players are put into good conditions, they are spoiled. Its the same as the boys: they want more but do not invest more. "

As it was not so long ago in rugby male, the shadow of "shamateurism" began to revolve around the women's rugby today. Clubs [in 2006] were increasingly going all-out to recruit with offers of jobs and apartments.

"We will have a championship first division where there will be two or three clubs of a very high level against others who will not be able to compete in either means or as a game" is a concern we begin to hear. Elite coaches had already entered in this phase. Some were already being paid.

Despite the uncertainties in the background, Nathalie Amiel who had played throughout the period we have studied, was more positive. One again there was the question of commitment. "I realized that if I wanted to help women's rugby," she said, "I had to get my Brevets d’Etat (national coaching diploma)." In 2002 she ended her playing career in 2003 and passed  her diploma with distinction. After this she began to train at Saint-Orens. "It's not for the FFR that I did all this. It was for girls. To give back what I experienced. When I get tired, I can shut the door, knowing that I owe nothing to anyone", said the iconic character who can not help thinking aloud about relations between the FFR and women's rugby:

"Does it really interest them? "

Extract from the book "Des Filles en Ovalie", Editions Atlantica (2005), Written by Jacques Corti / Yaneth Pinilla, Foreword by Serge Betsen.