U13s: A view from the North East

The following has been received from Dave in Morpeth, near where the new mini rugby game at U9 has been piloted. This has some relevance as the rules for it and the U10 game that they will try out next year are very similar to the proposed U13 girls rules (indeed the U10 rules fill in many of the obvious gaps in the U13 rules that RFUW circulated).

You might want to check out the...

• U9 Rules
• U10 Rules (note: proposed - never trialed)
• Compared with the RFUW U13 rules
• Report in trail games at Darlington Mowden Park (note that most of the praise seems to be for the 4x4 game U7s game)

Anyway, Dave writes:

"The proposed new rules have been trialed in Durham for the U9's and guess what?? "They were a great success"...One of my u9's coaches who is an ex-player does says that when they play a Durham team the handling is better but that may be because they have not been spending time teaching the players about ruck/maul/tackle and contact! But those same teams became unstuck when a tournament was played outside of their county. 

What is of interest to many clubs is the idea that at the mini/midi level of rugby the clubs can set local rules for instance there is no kicking allowed at u11/u12 in Northumberland and at the tag level there is a 4 pass rule after every breakdown and a double tag rule for turnovers. If clubs at mini/midi level can influence their CB's to experiment with local rule variations then we can at least TRIAL the ideas in selected CB's for girls rugby. 

The continuum does not allow scrag or swinging tackles because they are dangerous [though this does not appear in the actual rules]! The continuum also allows for girls only rugby teams to be formed at the U12 age group level - but why have that when only a few clubs in the country actually got an U12's team! The reason may not be anything to do with player numbers or recruitment it may be more to do with a lack of volunteers willing to manage and coach!

Dave also highlights a problem in his area where he suggests too many clubs have tried to set up girls teams, with the results that players are scattered:

"With your own club funding also partially dependent on how inclusive your club has become.. how many clubs will now look to set up a girls section? More club girls sections will mean less girls for your club..here is the breakdown for Northumberland and Durham girls rugby:
In the North East we have the following clubs that have girls section representatives:

• Percy Park (section folded when the club threw out the coach and his assistants! 0 players), 

• Whitley Bay Rockcliffe(the percy park coaching team went there..1 regular player at U15 and 2 at u18),

• Blyth rfc (section folded and the one female player in the u14's was found out to be playing at u12's rugby), 

• Gosforth rfc (section folded), 

• Northern rfc(touch rugby only section folded)

• Ponteland rfc (two good middle school after school clubs with 20+ attendees but only 2 have played a club game), 

• Alnwick rfc (15 u15's and growing.. but have to cluster at u18), 

• Tynedale rfc (15 u15's 5 u18's a great set up but some of the girls recently canvassed expressed a desire tonot play matches!)

• Novos'(a ladies team but no girl's teams, despite having the england team manager as one of their players) 

• Blaydon (the same as Novos), 

• Darlington Mowden Park (the only club in Durham with a girls rugby section at u15 and u18 as well as an excellant senior ladies rugby team with the current england capt..they strugle for numbers too!!)

• and finally Morpeth ( the only club in Northumberland with u15,u18 and senior ladies BUT we now only have 10 u15's for next season, we cluster with Alnwick for u18's and will have 12 players)

When the rfuw look at the girls section rep it looks healthy but do the maths!!!
Dave
ps the rfuw north of england rep knows my views and Vicky Putson has been helpful but...."