Formed 2004 ... Herts 7s U14 Runners-up 2005 ... North Herts U14 team, Herts Youth Games 2005 runners-up (coached by Letchworth)... Herts Superteams U14 Runners-up 2005 ... Herts SuperTeams "Fairplay" winners 2006 ... Rochford 10s U17 Champions 2006 ... East Midlands 10s U17 Runners-up 2007 ... East Midlands 10s U17 "Fairplay" winners 2007 ... National 10s U17 5th place and "Fairplay" winners 2007 ... Herts 7s U17 Plate runners-up 2007 ... National 7s U17 Plate winners 2007 ... RFU "President's XV" Award winners 2007 ... Herts Superteams winners 2007 ... Midlands 10s U18 Runners-up 2008 ... National 10s U18 4th place 2008 ... North Herts U11 team, Herts Youth Games 2008 runners-up (coached by Letchworth girls) ... London and SE 7s U18 Plate runners-up 2008 ... Herts 7s U18s runners-up 2008 ... National 7s U18s quarter-finalists 2008 ... Gloucester City 10s U18 Bowl runner-up (6th) 2009 ... Worthing 10s U18 Plate runner-up 2009 ... National 7s U18 Plate winners 2009... Worthing 10s U15 Plate winners 2010... Worthing 10s U18 Shield winners 2010... Herts 7s U15 and U18 Bowl runners-up 2010... National 7s U18 Plate runners-up 2010...

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

National 10s: more questions than answers

I have now had a reply from HQ about the National 10s - but it seems to raise as many questions as it answers. It is confirmed that there will be no National 10s next season, which is clear enough. However the reasoning... well, the more you look into it the more questions it raises.

Apparently the main justifications are that it was a only ever a two year experiment and "there has not been the interest in the Competition to keep it going as a National event".

It is hard to see what this means, and even harder to understand the justification. If by "national event" the RFUW mean the National Finals then it difficult to know how it could have been more successful! In two years the U18 national finals have only had one no-show out of 12 entrants - as good as the National 7s in recent years, and there is no question of cancelling that. Despite everything the weather threw at it in 2007, both finals days must be counted as major successes.

So perhaps the concern was the lack of entrants at regional qualifiers? But this makes even less sense as the combined entry this year was at least comparable to that of the National Cup (possibly bigger) - and certainly featured more "real" club teams. The reasoning is clouded still more when I am told "there will be local tournaments out on in your area", but no hint of a date - there is no date in the calendar.

The suspicion has to be that this cancellation is solely due to the senior event having problems last season - but why should that have any effect on the junior event? Mind you if the aim is that junior competitions always parellel senior events then that would at least explain (if not justify) why the National Cup rolls on from year to year, regardless of the ill-feeling it creates.

If anyone gets any replies which provide any answers to the above posers could they please let me know?

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