Students Rugby
South coast prop idol
Phillippa Hall
On a freezing cold night, more than 25 students from Southampton, Portsmouth and Solent Universities turned out to compete for the titles of men’s and women’s South Coast Student Prop Idol. The evening was based on the successful U1’ s and U14s Prop Idol Competition pioneered in Hampshire last year by Gavin Williams, RFU Southern Region Coach Development Officer. Promoting playing in the front row and providing coaching on the skills involved, the night saw Graham Smith, the England Women’s Forwards Coach helped by Jenny Lynne, member of England Women’s 2006 World Cup team provide the expertise. All the students agreed that they learnt huge amounts with Andy Machin hooker and Portsmouth University 3rd team skipper commenting that he’d “learnt about 10 new things within the first ten minutes of the session”. Experienced 1st team props were seen looking for paper and pen to write down all the pearls of wisdom received. Students then competed in a series of challenges measuring the attributes necessary to be a high quality prop including power, speed and the technical aspects of scrummaging. Sam Lappin, Portsmouth University 1st team hooker emerged victorious. With Andy Arter, Portsmouth University’s 3rd team stand off finishing second confirming many people’s view that he is destined to end up in the front row. In the women’s competition Fiona Snowdon and Rebecca Emery from Portsmouth University came first and second respectively. Said Nick Parker, Student RFU Southern Region rep,“The evening was been a big success with players really taking advantage of the top quality coaching on offer. Especially for the women’s side of the game anything helping to develop suitably trained front row players is particularly welcome at university level with the large number of women trying the game for the first time. This will hopefully be the first of many events in the southern region. The support of the RFU development staff in running the event was much appreciated and underlines the RFU’s commitment to the student game.”
Boost for north east Student rugby
Tony Simpson
Student rugby in the North East is receiving a massive boost with the appointment of two new RFU posts specifically targeted at helping to encourage and support the game at Higher and Further Education level. “We were offered the chance to apply for funding by Sport England and we were successful in getting support for two posts in the 16-plus age group.” says Dave Reed, RFU Rugby Development Office for Teesside: “The Northumberland and Durham Constituent Bodies of the RFU have been involved in establishing how and where we want the new people to work and they will be working closely with the four Rugby Union Student Liaison Officers who are already in post. “The game as a whole has been working to reduce the fall-off in numbers once young people reach their later teens after being involved in many cases since they were seven and eight-year-olds.” The new appointments, scheduled to be in place in January, will join an existing team of 16 RFU Community Rugby Coaches, three Rugby Development Officer, four RUSLOs and North East and Yorkshire Rugby Development Manager Matt Carter.
Higher education development programme
Charley Cullender
The Students Rugby Football Union and Rugby Football Union support university rugby clubs by assisting clubs in their development planning and providing incentive funding for delivering key activities, with university clubs improving communication across the board. University clubs submitting an appropriate two year club development plan by the November 1st 2007 deadline are rewarded with incentive funding and 114 universities met the deadline. This bodes well for the future, especially as 27 new teams have been set up across the country this season.
University referee societies
Over the past year a number of university referee societies have been created, helping to ensure that all university fixtures are refereed by qualified referees. Typically, each university society comprises between 10 and 20 students, all having undertaken the RFU Entry Level Referee Award, a two day course designed to equip new and inexperienced referees with the key skills required to referee competently. Once qualified, students are appointed to a wide range of university fixtures, and receive ongoing support and training. The societies are managed by students with the assistance of an RFU Referee Development Officer and links with the local referee society are encouraged. Bristol University was one of the first to create a referee society, members of which are shown in the photo below: For further information on creating a University Referee Society, please contact Richard Glynne-Jones, RFU Referee Manager, at richardglynne-jones@rfu.com
