Today I would like to talk about our school rugby system. While it is better now than it ever has been, it’s still not quite up to scratch. There are obvious difficulties we have in this area which we are going to talk about but first I want to talk about what schools are doing in other places that make things click.

If I asked you, where is school rugby most successful in Scotland? Where do you think. The answer is Private schools. But why? tradition? It can’t purely be that for the past 100 years; public schools play rugby and state schools play football. If we break it down, yes tradition is hugely important, I know that people in Edinburgh don’t ask where you are from, they ask what school you went to. If you went to a good rugby school, they may just assume you played and may go on to ask what years you played, what position or even if you played in the 1st XV or the 6th XV. Finances are another factor, of course if a school has a greater wealth, they can have luxuries such as scrum machines, video analysis and grander facilities. Or even just larger player base to use. Imagine having 50+ boys at every session and hundreds to pick your teams from. while these are only a handful of factors and there are obvious far more, you can’t argue that these can only improve the quality and even produce a more professional environment to train and compete in.

What if we were to compare to the New Zealand school rugby system? I was fortunate enough to be involved in a high school 1st XV while over there. It was not a private school, was no bigger than Invergordon academy so not the largest pool of players to pick from and the school was not traditionally that successful in the reginal or nation-wide competitions. However, we still ran two teams at each age group. How? Two contributing factors, first, rugby is the nation’s national sport! Where we have kids kicking a football in the backyard or sitting in front of the computer… they are out playing touch rugby.

Second, it’s a short and condensed season. We only played rugby for a few months because the kids (and the parents) had the cricket season, the ski season, water sports and mountain sports to play. This meant they could give 100% commitment and concentration to one or two sports at a time.

So, what are the problems we have here in Ross-Shire. Number one in my eyes, fighting football! We live in an area which has traditionally been football through and through. No matter how we wrap it up, we are up against generations of players who have played the round ball game and nothing else. One of the first questions I will get asked when coaching in a school is whether I support Rangers or Celtic…. Neither! I have nothing against the “beautiful game”, but if we had a school football season and a school rugby season, we could expose players to both games and it has been proven to improve your skill level in both if you play both! Again, that’s why the kiwis are so good. Number two, culture. People are getting lazier; some folk think they can only play one sport and only train a couple of times a week. What happened to playing outside with your mates every day after school? I went to a different sports club every evening of the week and still managed to get my school work done, that wasn’t that many years ago either. Third, small schools. If a coach only has a handful of players to pick from, or a small number that are willing/available to train. How are we going to improve the quality? Forth, geography. This is a two parter, if we look at the weather, the traditional rugby season is winter, which is cold wet and unfortunately for us up here dark! These can’t be help. Second though is travel. This to me is a bit of a hit and miss because we choose to live here, we choose to live in the country side and not the city. If you don’t like travel, then maybe a move is on the cards. I understand there is a time commitment to consider but if sport is a passion of yours, then you should be understanding that to play you must travel.

But remember, a wise man once said “something is only a problem until you find a solution” so what’s our solution? School sizes, we can’t change. Geography, we can’t change, but we can work around it. if we changed are school rugby season we can play after school, if we make it a short sharp season we can keep folk engaged and if they love their rugby, they can come on down to the local club. If we work with other sports instead of fighting against them, we will get more kids playing more sport which makes everyone a winner. A big one for me though is getting more people involved. We have seven high school within 45 minutes of Ross-Sutherland, I am only one man and can’t be in them all. This puts a lot of pressure on school P.E. staff, at the end of the day once the final bell goes they become a volunteer like everyone else. What they do is great and school sport wouldn’t work without them but if they need a hand here and there. This season we put a number of a youth players through a Youth Coaching Course and they have stepped up and helped out with younger players. Great to see and is a massive help. What we need now is more adult volunteers getting stuck into it, assisting with some coaching session, even driving the odd mini bus here and there. could be a great way to get involved in the sport and wouldn’t take up much of your time. You know how to get in touch with me.

Last thing from me, if you have any suggestions on how we could improve our school rugby or you would like to get involved, please get in touch. I am always looking for different ideas and opinions.

Chur
John Mann, Community and Rugby Development Officer.