Just out of interest I got a report from our CB today looking to introduce leagues into our area from U13 upwards.
IMHO this will kill the game stone dead here. Apologies as this probably isn't the forum for this debate.
But do they play at school as well?
The issue is often not the lack of competitive spirit - I have yet to meet a 10 year old rugby player who was not competitive. It is more to do with the number of competitive games of rugby per week and cumulative over season that young physiques can stand.
Whatever do you mean Didds??? :biggrin:
As for killing rugby here I probably need to explain. In the county we have 20 teams of which 15 run youth sections - some are huge, some not.
There are clubs who "collect" players in order to build a team to win (at all costs), this in turn leads to a number of players being sidelined at those clubs as the next great thing takes there shirt.
There is also a perceiption that representative squads are picked from certain teams already.
These elements together with a league structure which IMO only encourages a win at all costs mentality will see players migrate to 1 of 3 or 4 clubs who will select and discard them accordingly and we will very quickly get left with those very few clubs all playing each other and the rest of the clubs not able to field teams.
I can understand how this might work where there is a greater density of clubs and much larger numbers involved but can't see how it will work here and if I'm honest can't see any value to it. For competition there is a CB cup tournament at the minute (which works - sort of).
do you mean the answer is a resounding NO, rather than YES? or have i missed something?
I think you've missed something (no offence meant, and none meant to Davet for stating that either): the point I am making is the kids (in general) want to win games, but (in near totality) don't care about winning leagues. So for them, a league match has an added issue at stake which they don't actually find important but which is imposed on them (usually by adults) as being so. There is a conflict between the kid's natural objectives (have fun, be with my mates, win the game on the day but hey not the end of the world if we don't)
and the exterior objectives we as a system are imposing on them (win league).
Bottom-line: most kids at a young age would rather play friendlies (where less is at stake) than league matches. Why do we think it's ok to impose our vision on them?
Again interesting.
Wouldn't work here as we have no tradition in any sport at any level of cups or friendlies. All kids talk about is "making the semis" of the league. Again, we also don't have a tradition of promotion/relegation so there is no pressure added from that.
Does that not lead to the discards going to other clubs where they will get a game and relish the opportunity to stuff one up the discarders?
rather than enduring a 50-0 friendlies 'because we ALWAYS play them every year, it's a friendly'
Again interesting.
Wouldn't work here as we have no tradition in any sport at any level of cups or friendlies. All kids talk about is "making the semis" of the league. Again, we also don't have a tradition of promotion/relegation so there is no pressure added from that.