Where Do The Stars Start?

By Razcal
June 4 2003

We have all been reminded recently of Darren Garforth’s accidental coming to rugby when at the age of 17 his football match was cancelled and he accepted an invitation from some passing acquaintances to go to their rugby game. Lo and behold they were short, he played and the rest is history.

Where Do The Stars Start?
By Razcal

We all love watching our favourite players be it Oz or Harry. But where do these people learn their rugby?

We have all been reminded recently of Darren Garforth’s accidental coming to rugby when at the age of 17 his football match was cancelled and he accepted an invitation from some passing acquaintances to go to their rugby game. Lo and behold they were short, he played and the rest is history.

However, most people start in clubs or at school. Schools are less committed to rugby nowadays because of the compensation culture and the reduction in the time given to PE. There are some honorable exceptions, in Leicestershire John Cleveland in Hinckley has a great rugby tradition and produced several current first team players. But the main bulk of rugby induction and mini coaching is now done by the clubs themselves. And really this makes sense. A PE teacher has to be able to coach the basics in swimming, basketball, netball, hockey, football, badminton , running and jumping and throwing in athletics, tennis and so on and so on. It is asking a lot for someone whose main love is tennis to coach a decent rugby team. So it seems more logical to have someone who loved rugby so much that they played for a long time and picked up a lot of experience to work with young players. Indeed, this was grasped a long time ago in France. When I played there in the 70s and 80s I taught English. The schools I worked in did not have a rugby team. But the local club was not allowed to have a senior team in the league ( yes they had leagues long before us) unless it ran 3 teams between the ages of 10 and 18.

The RFU has sensibly produced a code for young people playing rugby. It is called the Continum. The idea is to ensure that children are introduced to the various skills and techniques gradually and the emphasis is placed on having fun and running and passing. It covers rugby played in clubs and in schools.

So at under 8 level there is no tackling as such. A tackle is two hands on the waist. So children can run and pass with confidence. 8 players per team on a small pitch so everybody gets a look in.

At under 9 level the scrum is introduced but only front rows. Rucks and mauls are introduced though you do not have to join from the back foot. No line outs. Scrums cannot be pushed more than 1½ metres. 9 players per side. Players should not have fixed positions but move round the positions to increase their understanding.

At under 10 line outs are introduced and you have to join rucks from the back.

By under 12 it is 12 aside, no back row. The pitch gradually gets bigger year by year but at U12 it is really too small at 39 metres wide.

Players are only allowed to play 12 fixtures a year and 3 tournaments to prevent over playing. No play is allowed during the months of May, June, July and August.

Mini rugby stops at the end of the year you are 12 in. After this girls cannot play with boys. Junior rugby starts at the year you are 13 in and it is essentially full rules except for no lifting in the line outs and you play on a full size pitch for 30 minutes each way.

In reality, it requires a lot of time from the people who do the coaching and running round for the team. You can play up near Mansfield one week and down in Coventry the next. If there is no match then it is training in all weathers. Most teams are consequently coached by the parent of of one of the players. A downside is that you sometimes have to miss Tigers’ away games on Sundays.

Sometimes, on a Sunday, I look round the six acres of our pitches and see and hear literally hundreds of children from the ages of 5 to 12 running around enjoying themselves. Most probably dream of playing at the top level but many will drop out by the age of 17 and most of those who stay make good junior club players. But Harry Ellis started on our bottom pitch at the age of 8 and still comes to his old club’s mini tournament in October.

You might not suspect it from his posts but Alan’s Pants is actually a very good coach judging by the one time we met his team a few years ago. You do not actually have to have coaching and refereeing qualifications to coach minis but most clubs insist that their coaches have at least an RFU 1.

Tigers have their local contacts in most of the junior clubs and will be tipped off if someone looks promising at the age of 13/14. These players get the chance to join the tigers academy which effectively mean they are then lost to their club. Some clubs resent this but I feel that every Harry Ellis who makes it big from these beginnings encourages more players to join a club and so the junior clubs benefit from the system.