Somerset Rugby Development Newsletter

Welcome to the sixteenth instalment. Season’s Greetings to you all!

CLUB FEATURE– Sharing Good Practice The ‘Club Feature’ allows you to know what is working for

other Somerset clubs; recruitment drives, social events, money-making projects, anything that is worth

sharing because it could make a difference at your club. For many clubs it’s a continuous challenge to

integrate the mini-junior section with the seniors as they both play on different days; however

Keynsham RFC have recently had a “One KRFC Day”.

Bath U13 & U15 Girls Sessions

Monday nights fortnightly @

Lambridge 9th Dec, 16th Dec (Extra session before Christmas),

13th Jan and 27th Jan. Further dates TBC in the New Year!

Club Leaders-Mentors available

The Club Leaders programme is here to help with the business side of

things, providing FREE support in the form of online modules, toolkits

and seminars which cover a range of topics from marketing to tax

obligations.

“Our mentor didn’t instruct, but support; guiding people in the right

direction while making sure they stay in control of the club themselves,”

said Jim Haywood, Chair of Directors at Sutton Coldfield RFC.

If your club needs guidance on a specific area of club development check

out the online resources or request a Club Leader's mentor

http://www.rfu.com/managingrugby/clubdevelopment/clubleaders

For more info contact Alex Thompson, RFU Club Management &

Governance Officer Telephone: 07894 489 756 or Email:

alexthompson@rfu.com

CLARIFICATION; Regulation 15.13.3 states that players of all age grades are permitted to wear

spectacles, glasses or specifically designed sports goggles in all forms of non-contact rugby but NOT in any form of contact rugby. This means that U9s and above are not permitted to wear any eye wear when

playing contact rugby.

The club wanted to provide an opportunity for the seniors and

mini/junior section to meet each other and understand what each bring

to the club. On the 2nd

of November, when the 1st XV were playing at

home, the minis turned up in large numbers to perform a guard of

honour for the 1st XV team receiving a few high fives during their run

onto the pitch (of course in the true spirit of rugby the opposition and

the referee also ran through their tunnel!). The week before the seniors

assisted regular coaches at the mini/junior training sessions.

The day was a great success and it is hoped will be repeated annually -

notable comments were:

U8 player - 'I love this place - this is brilliant!’

1st XV player - 'I can't believe how they (the mini players) look up to us -

they were in awe of us coming to help at training and the tunnel was

something special'.

On 2nd

Nov the BBQ was going all afternoon,

there was a climbing wall for the younger

players to try out their mountaineering skills

and a cross bar challenge took place during

half time featuring the juniors.

Any athlete with suspected concussion should be

IMMEDIATELY REMOVED FROM PLAY and should not return

until assessed medically.

RECOGNIZE – 1. Visible Clues eg loss of consciousness 2. Signs & Symptoms

eg Nausea/Vomiting 3. Memory Function eg What venue are we at today?

For more info go to http://www.rfu.com/headcase#

This year’s NatWest RugbyForce will take place from Saturday 21st to Sunday 22nd June.

Register here by 17th Jan www.rfu.com/NatwestRugbyForce for your chance to be selected to

attend a workshop and win £500. If you are successful at this stage you can then apply for an

additional £1000 or £2000 to improve your club. Last season Imperial, Avonvale, Chard,

Hornets and Cheddar were successful, with the former two winning the additional funding.

The 1st4sport Level 1&2 Certificate in

Coaching Strength and Conditioning

for Sport is designed to provide

candidates with the level of knowledge

needed to build and lead well-

constructed strength and conditioning

programmes through an understanding of

how to plan, conduct and evaluate sessions.

Numerous dates at Wellington &

Gloucestershire next year -

http://www.excelsiorgroup.co.uk/page

/strength-conditioning-course

Major boost to Rugby youth development in East Bath.

In a city such as Bath the sport of rugby is second nature to many and now none more so than the students at St Mark’s

School (Larkhall). They have recently seen a dramatic increase in the number of students playing the game, both male and

female, as a result of an exciting partnership with their local rugby club and the RFU.

The RFU have provided funding to supply new kits to the lower and upper school A Teams as well as coaching for the girl’s

rugby squad. This donation, along with a new collaborative partnership with Avon Rugby Club, who have agreed to supply

free training/playing facilities at their club, provides a major boost to youth rugby in the east of Bath.

Head of PE, Steve Leonard comments that “The RFU and Avon RFC have been very supportive of our ambitions and through

their support our teams can now compete wearing the latest kits and using first class facilities, everyone is really excited to

have our own ‘home’ facility.”

We have been working with our longstanding partner O2

to develop a special offer for wifi making the cost to all

RFU member clubs as low as possible. With the RFU O2

Wifi offer you pay just £30 per month on a 36 month

contract with no set up or registration fees, saving over

£1,700 over three years.

For more information o2wifirfuclubs.com

Congratulations to Midsomer Norton RFC

who have gained £50K from Sport England to

purchase new land alongside their current

pitches. Chairman Neil Denning has led the club

to make a successful bid to the Protecting

Playing Fields scheme, a fund set up as part of

the Olympic Legacy. A central part of the bid

was the relationship between rugby and

football in the town and the new land will

create one new football pitch as well as 2 new

mini pitches and 2 midi pitches, which will ease

the amount of usage on the main training

area’s. Neil, who joined the club at just 15, had

this to say “We are delighted that Sport England

has approved funding allowing us to purchase

additional land at Norton Down. These

improvements, along with the guarantee of a

protection for at least 25 years, means that this

sports facility can be enjoyed by our community

for many years to come.”

Tor RFC re-launch their Junior Section In recent weeks Tor have been working hard to

attract new players to club training on Sunday

mornings. With RFU support the club held two school

fixtures on Thurs 28th Nov at Year 8 & 9 between St

Dunstan’s and Crispin schools. 65 boys had a great

game of rugby followed by food in the clubhouse

supplied for free by the club. The next Sunday the

club had 7 new players turn up for training, making

their U13/U14 squad total 12 players. A great

example of club-school links and how to launch new

teams effectively.

Old Culverhaysians RFC is the latest

Bath based club to be awarded the

prestigious RFU Club Accreditation

“Gaining the RFU Club Accreditation has confirmed

our commitment to the development of local

community rugby at Old Culverhaysians RFC” says

Mike Harding, Club Chairman.

Both Year 8 squads under the posts after their game

Club President Martin Lynch receives the certificate &

plaque from Julie Swann at the BANES cluster meeting

Also Achieving Accreditation since September are; COMBE DOWN RFC and HORNETS RFC

Successfully completing their 1 year Healthcheck are FROME RFC, GORDANO RFC, IVEL

BARBARIANS RFC and OLDFIELD OLD BOYS – Congratulations all!

REMINDER! All RFU course bookings for

coaching, refereeing and safeguarding

must now be done online at:

www.rfu.com/takingpart/olcb

The England rose is an official registered trade mark of the Rugby Football Union and is the subject of extensive trade mark registrations worldwide.

Congratulations to Walcot RFC who have gained £23,099 from the RFU as a 50% contribution

to new training floodlights. One of the conditions of the award was for the club to remain working

with Bath University to offer their social players continued opportunities to play rugby. Chairman

Alan Book said “"They will be vital in providing a much better training experience for all of our

players, including those from Bath University and Bath Spa University. They will help us to

improve the wear and tear on our pitches, and allow us to host floodlit evening matches. We are

really looking forward to be able to use them."

Ever thought about developing a

Coaching Corner on your website?

Check out Combe Down’s for inspiration:

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/combed

own/a/coaches-corner-36617.html -

SOMERSET STORMING GROWTH OF GIRLS

Somerset have seen a remarkable growth in girls

rugby in the last few seasons and the rise of the

game looks set to continue across the county

with 5 new U13 teams so far this season. On

Sun 10th Nov Burnham on Sea RFC hosted all 5

squads in a festival designed to offer the girls a

fun introduction to the game. In sunny conditions

9 teams each played four 7 aside games and

displayed a remarkable skill level and confidence

for such new players. The coaches agreed not to

keep scores and a ‘Sportsmanship’ award was

awarded to one player per team for

demonstrating teamwork and fair play.

Somerset clubs in attendance were Gordano

RFC, Minehead RFC, Bath RFC, Castle Cary

RFC and Hornets RFC. They were joined by

Drybrook RFC from Gloucestershire and two

Devon sides, Exeter Saracens RFC and Newton

Abbot RFC.

Head Coach of Gordano Neil Steer said of the

day, ‘It was encouraging to see the enthusiasm

from the girls and exciting to see the way in

which they improved every game they played.

The Gordano ladies team are very supportive of

the girls sessions and hope these players will

succeed them in the years to come’. Chelsea

Howard a Minehead U13s player said "I thought

it was amazing and I liked playing all the

matches against new teams. It was a nice

opportunity to travel away together as a U13s

team seeing some of the new girls having fun

playing their first match even scoring the odd try".

Drybrook (with ball) vs. Minehead