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Norwich U12’s vs Schools Barbarian Team – 10.03.17

Norwich U12’s welcomed a School Barbarian team on a Friday evening playing under the floodlights. This annual event organised by the club schools liaison officer (Colin Dunbar) and RFU’s Stewart Cameron has in previous years been a great success and this years did not disappoint. Colin and Stewart have been doing some great work in local Norwich schools and together invited boys from schools including Hellesdon High, Open Academy and Sprowston High. In previous years this event with the work that Colin and Stewart are doing in local schools had attracted some new players to the club and with this in mind we welcomed the boys to Norwich RFC.

After the usual warm up we decided to play two 20 minute halves with rolling subs. The Norwich team very quickly realised that while the school team had not before played together, they had not turned up to make the numbers up!! They were very competitive in the tackle and breakdown, displaying great tenacity in every single contact situation. This was a testament to the work that Colin and Stewart had done with these boys in a very limited amount of time. The experience of the Norwich team in the end was too much for the schools barbarian team; however all of the boys should feel very proud of themselves for the commitment they displayed throughout the match.

After the obligatory group photo (not the best photo due to the light!) the boys enjoyed some food and refreshment in the clubhouse. All were made welcome and given information about joining the club. To date we have had 2 new players join and are already playing matches for Norwich. Prior to this event the schools project had already attracted 3 players to the U12’s and so the results are testament to the work that is put in by Colin and Stewart. We did chat to most of the boys and while a lot of them are currently committed to playing football on Sunday we hope they are now aware of a very good alternative!

We would like to thank all of the boys from the local schools who turned up to play this event, the parents for supporting them and the Schools project team for arranging the event.

David Regester

U12’s Coach   

Sports Leadership Course

This was a new initiative held at Open Academy to develop Leadership skills for Year 9 pupils. The course for pupils at Open Academy and run by Mike Tidder and supported by Norwich Rugby Club. The course consisted of 6 sessions after school and 6 lunch time sessions. The conclusion was an afternoon of rugby where the Leadership candidates took full control of 50 Year 7 pupils. Many of these youngsters had never played rugby before. The leaders had to prepare the pitch's, split the Year7's into teams and conduct a warm up session. They then organised and took control of a series of games which included refereeing each game. 12 students where successfully completed the course with another 8 participating.

Mr Scott Richardson, Head of the Sports Dept. at Open Academy, Mike Tidder and myself have already made plans to run another Sports Leadership Course next summer. We are working hard to get the Heartsease Primary School involved next year. This will be an added bonus by giving these youngsters an early taste of rugby before moving up to Open Academy the following September. Hopefully they will then join the after school rugby club and enjoy representing their school in future inter school fixtures. Looking even further ahead when these pupils reach Year 9 they themselves will have the opportunity to get involved in future Sports Leadership Courses to continue the cycle of developing new rugby players

School Rugby Fixtures

It was a great pleasure to attend the 1st schools rugby fixtures meeting on the 13th July. After several years of hard work from Stewart Cameron, England RFU Community Coach, and myself 9 schools have committed to playing schools rugby fixtures and be part of the newly formed NSRFUA
Norwich Schools Rugby Football Association

Fixtures have been set for 4 different age groups, at this early stage not all schools have entered teams in all 4 age groups but I am confident this will happen in the very near future. If a school develops a new age group team part way through the season they will automatically join in the fixtures. It was also great to hear the schools have committed to play all their players in the fixtures to encourage rugby within their schools.

I would like to thank Joff Richards of Sprowston Community High School for organising the meeting and taking the responsibility of the admin for the NSRFUA. Norwich Rugby Club will continue to support the NSRFUA to help rugby grow and develop within all our schools
 

Colin Dunbar

Some photos from the leadership sessions...

2015 Competition Reports at the bottom of the page

Tuesday 19th November 2013 saw Norwich Rugby Club host a new school rugby tournament. In association with the RFU rugby community coach Stuart Cameron, we are taking rugby into local schools. The year 8 tournament took place in very cold conditions but a lot of young players had a great time. The EDP & Mustard TV were there. Click here to view the video

Norwich RFC schools liaison officer  Colin Dunbar said “I’m delighted with the help we have had from the RFU and  the teachers at the local schools to introduce rugby in schools where it is  not traditionally a mainstream activity. Rugby provides so many life skills to young people and opens up so many opportunities for them. It is our intention  to hold 3 tournaments per year and to play for a trophy sponsored by a local  company. We are looking for a trophy sponsor at this time. We don’t want this  to be a one off experience for the players but ignite continued enthusiasm for  the game.”

Thorpe St Andrew School Sports teacher Matt Woodhouse said “I think  this is a wonderful opportunity and we at Thorpe St Andrew School look forward to  working with the other schools in the area to promote rugby. The mutual  respect that rugby promotes is one of many lessons that the students will  learn through their association with the game. Colin has a long history of  coaching youth players in rugby and is assisting and supporting the sports  teachers at the training sessions."

The schools participating in the  project are Thorpe St Andrew, Sprowston, The Open Academy, Hellesdon, Acle and  Sewell Park College

Colin Dunbar                                                                          Stewart Cameron

THREE CUPS TO CONTEST

The three cups being contested as part of the schools projects are

THE PILCH CUP

Sponsored by Norwich sports retailer Pilch Sports

 http://www.jarrold.co.uk/departments/pilch-sport

THE PRESIDENT'S CUP 2015

Donated by Norwich Rugby Club President Andy Ball

Wednesday 11th March 2015 saw the first of the Norwich School Tournaments held at Norwich Rugby Club.

It involved more than 70 Year 8 pupils from 5 local schools who took part on a bright spring afternoon. The participating schools where Open Academy, Sewell Park, Sprowston High, Notre Dame & The Hewett. It was great to see The Hewitt School competing for the first time (The first game of rugby I ever played was against The Hewett School in about 1970, delighted to see you back in rugby, folks! - Ed)

The tournament was a very close competition with 3 schools finishing equal 2nd with only tries scored to separate them. The overall winner was Notre Dame who played a very good team game to overcome their opposition.

Andy Ball Norwich Rugby Club President presented the Presidents Cup to the captain of Notre Dame to conclude a very successful afternoon of rugby. Andy very kindly donated this trophy last season for this age groups tournament.

I would like to thank all the teachers for their support and the players who took part. A special thanks to Stewart Cameron the RFU's Community Coach for his help and support with the schools project.

We already have high hopes of introducing another Norwich school to the tournaments.

Now there's a lovely thought, all the Norwich schools playing competitive rugby!

Andy Ball presenting the President's Cup to the winning Captain of Notre Dame school

The Pilch Cup 2015

The conclusion of this seasons School Rugby Project was played out on 17th March at Norwich Rugby Club. Four Year 9 teams from Notre Dame, Sprowston, Thorpe and Hewett played for the Pilch Cup. There was some outstanding rugby played and so good to see how far these players have progressed since we started. Notre Dame took the honours after a hard fought match against Sprowston to seal their win. The cup was presented to the captain of Notre Dame by Colin Dunbar the School Liaison Officer at Norwich Rugby Club. One of the memorable moments of the day was the sportsmanship shown. At the presentation it was pointed out that 3 of the teams had been playing for at least 2 years with many of their players also playing youth rugby for local clubs But the lads from Hewett, who never gave up or let their heads drop had only started rugby 6 weeks earlier. To that everybody gave them a standing ovation.
We are very grateful and many thanks to Pilch Sports for donating this trophy for the Year 9 Tournament