Interesting article in today's Sun (believe it or not)

I was at the barber's today and I started reading the Sun. Although this article was about football, I still found it very interesting and possibly relevant to rugby. Click to read. It got me thinking about the grass roots of my game, rugby. It could be said given our player base and money we should be doing better than we are, but apart from one 4 year period we have never been able to consistently compete at the top end of International rugby.

My only experience with Junior Rugby in England was obviously my path through my club (from Under 7s eventually to the first team). I think it went something like this:

Under 7s/8s: Touch rugby (can't remember how many players per team)
Under 9s/10s: Introduction of contact eg scrums and tackling. Teams consisted of 3 forwards and 7 backs
Under 11s/12s: Introduction of kicking. Teams consisted of 5 forwards and 7 backs.
Under 13s/14s/15s: 15 a side games. Introduction of league campaigns (as opposed to festivals)
Under 16s: Introduction of lifting in the line-out.
Under 17s/18s: Colts rugby. I think these are 35 minutes each way.

Looking at that, I would probably hold off on introducing kicking until we get to the full 15-a-side game at under-13s level, so the players have a bit longer to work on their skills with ball in hand. When Woodward took over at Henley, he pretty much banned his players from kicking. Too often in the English game it is a default option, rather than be used as it should be - to gain territory or as an attacking weapon. I think 2 years longer playing rugby without being able to kick the ball away would help our younger players develop as rugby players. They can develop their kicking skills and game management when they enter their teen years, however I'd just try and get the kids playing proper rugby.

I would also look to reduce Under 9s and 10s to 7s (3 forwards and 4 backs) and Under 11s and 12s to 10s (5 forwards and 5 backs) to increase the space on the pitch. As an 11 year old playing 12 man rugby on half a pitch there's just not that much space or opportunity for people to express themselves with ball in hand.

There was a point in the Sun's article that a lot of foreign countries use smaller sided games to help players develop skills (7 vs 7 in Spain, 4 vs 4 in Holland), a concept that isn't alien in rugby. As well as being seen as a development tool for the 15-a-side game, Rugby Sevens is a sport on the rise in this country and is also becoming an Olympic Sport in 2016, however in my youth I played one Sevens tournament a year (if selected). Looking at my club's youth teams' fixtures this year, most of them finished at the end of March, and I'm thinking wouldn't it be good if 13, 14, 15 and 16 year olds had a month of Sevens added at the end of their regular seasons. It would be nice to see local RFU's, maybe in partnership with the BOA adding Sevens programs in their counties, maybe 3 or 4 tournaments in every area.

At the moment there is one long league season but we want to split the season into three. Start with friendlies, then a league and a third part where teams of similar strength play each other instead of getting hammered by ones at the top.

I agree with this and would bring this in for Rugby. What I would probably do at Youth Level (13s - 16s) is have friendlies from September to December, leagues from January to March and Sevens in April. I'd possibly extend that to Colts Level as well.

So what does everyone think about this? Do the grass roots of the game need looking at in this country? Would you try and get players playing for longer without kicking? And would you try to incorporate Sevens as a development tool for Youth teams?

Rugby has always had a softer start than soccer at a young age. the worry of injury or scaring the less physical kids away from the sport, they try to make it fun.

I was playing rugby for the first time last year with a romanian friends grandson, who didnt know how famous romania were at rugby before he was born. he loved passing and kicking and sidestepping then diving over to score in a back yard game of one on one. It was really interesting to see him take to it, having never seen a rugby ball before i found a very old pretty deflated one in his granfathers shed.

He now has an interest in playing rugby. I hope he has some friends who do too.

With regards to the latter stages, I noticed when I lived in NZ and Australia that kids play a lot of touch rugby, friends and families play it on the beach. Its a great sport that everyone can get involved in.

I notice the local lads playing under 14s last year played touch on the pitch here all last summer and had a much better season than previously. THeir game is starting to take shape, and they are starting to try to put other players in space and support.