Monday, 27 January 2014

Rugby Union accused of "going soft" as it tells children"s sides to lose the ...


  • Sport chiefs want schools to remove some competitive aspects of game

  • They say it will stop youngsters turning away from the sport

  • But a former England player has derided the plans


By

Nick Fagge



PUBLISHED:


17:28, 26 January 2014


|
UPDATED:


17:34, 26 January 2014



It is a hard-fought game where players are taught not to shirk a tackle.


But Rugby Union’s ruling body has been accused of going soft by trying to remove the competitive edge of the sport for children.


It wants schools and clubs to switch players between sides at half-time to make games less one-sided and to ban trophies from tournaments for the under 11’s in order to stop disillusioned youngsters giving up.


However attempts to introduce a more level playing field have backfired with one former England international pulling his club out of mini-rugby competitions.


School of hard knocks. Rugby Union¿s ruling body has been accused of going soft by trying to remove the competitive edge of the sport for children. File picture


School of hard knocks. Rugby Union¿s ruling body has been accused of going soft by trying to remove the competitive edge of the sport for children. File picture



Simon Halliday, who was part of the England’s 1992 Five Nations Championship winning side, said: ‘Rugby is a lesson in life.


‘Nobody wants to see a young side get panned but if one team wins by 30 points you have to say “congratulations” and the other team goes off to lick its wounds and ask what went wrong.’


On Sunday mornings tens of thousands of youngsters play mini-rugby, using a smaller ball and playing on a smaller pitch.



But the Rugby Football Union (RFU) is

concerned at the number of children who drop out in their teens instead

of graduating to the adult game.


Try hard: Simon Halliday, who played for Bath and Harlequins, blasted the guidelines and said:


Try hard: Simon Halliday, who played for Bath and Harlequins, blasted the guidelines and said: ‘You can¿t tell an eight-year-old that the result doesn¿t matter’


It therefore is urging clubs to

concentrate on playing skills and enjoying being on the field rather

than the result.


This in mind Surrey Rugby, one of RFU’s constituent bodies, has sent out new rules for a forthcoming min-club festival.


Rival coaches have been told they must consult on the levels of their teams before a match and switch players at half-time if the score is too one-sided.


Clubs have been warned they will be disciplined if they ignore the new guidelines.


But two clubs – Esher, from Surrey, and Rosslyn Park, from south-west London, are so incensed they have pulled out of the tournament.


Mr Halliday, who played for Bath and Harlequins, said: ‘I get the full gamut of trying to encourage children to play but you can’t tell an eight-year-old that the result doesn’t matter.’


However RFU development director Steve Grainger says it is more important to keep the children interested than meet the adult’s needs.


He said: ‘This is not about denying children competitive rugby. Rugby is a competitive team sport and always will be and as a father myself I know how competitive children are.


‘But we must evolve a player-centred game which is enjoyable and allows young people to develop.


‘That is our Kids First Rugby programme, where the core skills are brought to the fore while maintaining the integrity of the sport as a game for all shapes and sizes.’








Comments (188)


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Sais Cas,


Here and There, United Kingdom,


1 hour ago


Champagne socialists trying social engineering again to turn Britain into a nation of mummy’s boys and whimps!





Martin Lester,


leicester, United Kingdom,


1 hour ago


I think it is all being blown out of proportion. Rugby is not football. You can loose on the pitch having played well and then go in the bar afterwards and have a good laugh with the opposition. As this sport has become more professional the emphasis on winning has become too great. I run an under 10 side which I have told them from the beginning of the season win, lose or draw it does not matter as long as they have enjoyed themselves and have learned something. I have retained 98% of the players and the parents now understand that rugby is a lifestyle not a sport. I am part of a club that is the first club in Leicestershire to be awarded the RFU KIDS FIRST rugby programme. Which is about building confident decision making players of the future. I play every player I have in my team, every game. Which builds a good base for the future as every child develops at a different rate and the stronger ones help the weaker ones.





Higgs,


Erewhon, United Kingdom,


3 hours ago


“This is not about denying children competitive rugby”. Think about that. It’s not about banning winning and losing individual games, it’s about reducing the pressure on 10-year-olds to win at any cost. Eliminating formal knockout competitions reduces that pressure – not least on the poor kids with too-competitive parents. That just encourages the big lumps who are less skilful, at the expense of smaller kids with more skill. There’s good evidence from the round-ball game that too much emphasis on winning at a young age damages skill development and forces out those kids who happen not to have grown as much. Plus only masochists will come back to a game that sees them losing 70-0 week after week – that kind of result is a failure of the coaches, but the kids think that it’s their fault. Losing 25-24 does give out the right life-lessons, it encourages them to come back and have their revenge. Losing 70-0 doesn’t. So yep, let’s concentrate on igniting a passion for the game in the 7-11s





RABIGYIN,


EDINBURGH,


3 hours ago


It is simply this, at this age, aquiring skills and techniques are more important than winning. ONCE you have the skills, etc. , then you can start to have winners.





Higgs,


Erewhon, United Kingdom,


3 hours ago


“This is not about denying children competitive rugby”. Think about that. It’s not about banning winning and losing individual games, it’s about reducing the pressure on 10-year-olds to win at any cost. Eliminating formal knockout competitions reduces that pressure – not least on the poor kids with too-competitive parents. That just encourages the big lumps who are less skilful, at the expense of smaller kids with more skill. There’s good evidence from the round-ball game that too much emphasis on winning at a young age damages skill development and forces out those kids who happen not to have grown as much. Plus only masochists will come back to a game that sees them losing 70-0 week after week – that kind of result is a failure of the coaches, but the kids think that it’s their fault. Losing 25-24 does give out the right life-lessons, it encourages them to come back and have their revenge. Losing 70-0 doesn’t. So yep, let’s concentrate on igniting a passion for the game in the 7-11s





Higgs,


Erewhon, United Kingdom,


3 hours ago


“This is not about denying children competitive rugby”. Think about that. It’s not about banning winning and losing individual games, it’s about reducing the pressure on 10-year-olds to win at any cost. Eliminating formal knockout competitions reduces that pressure – not least on the poor kids with too-competitive parents. That just encourages the big lumps who are less skilful, at the expense of smaller kids with more skill. There’s good evidence from the round-ball game that too much emphasis on winning at a young age damages skill development and forces out those kids who happen not to have grown as much. Plus only masochists will come back to a game that sees them losing 70-0 week after week – that kind of result is a failure of the coaches, but the kids think that it’s their fault. Losing 25-24 does give out the right life-lessons, it encourages them to come back and have their revenge. Losing 70-0 doesn’t. So yep, let’s concentrate on igniting a passion for the game in the 7-11s






Freddy.Johnson,


Pennan Aberdeenshire,


3 hours ago


“RFU development director Steve Grainge”….what a complete and utter numpty. He HAS to be a liberal supporting saddo. What a hyper pathetic idiotic ruling. I thought we got rid of this rubbish PC in the late 90s? Thank God my kids private boarding school will totally ignore such a sillyness.





Old Geordie,


Geordieland,


3 hours ago


Children need to learn that life is not all about winning and it is not always fair and it’s not all about them either but it IS life and the sooner they learn about it the better, so get them unwrapped from all the tissue paper and cotton wool parents and let them learn.





mattgroves,


Coalville, United Kingdom,


4 hours ago


I coach U7 at a club that is part of the Kids First programme, I have been on the RFU training for Kids First will openly admit I had an amount of scepticism at the start, but the programme is entirely appropriate and I believe it to be the right things for us to be doing with the kids.

And that’s the important point, KIDS. I think many people are forgetting that we’re talking about kids here. Ask a child why they play Rugby the overwhelming majority say making friends having fun, only 3% of kids said winning (sourced from an RFU survey).

By incentivising the kids to develop skills, solve problems themselves, embrace the culture of Rugby and be part of a team, the natural conclusion of this is that by the time the kids progress from Minis to Juniors they will be team focussed, technically skilled and good decision makers. Therefore, they will be better players, who have a better foundation on which to build as they move into more competitive age groups, and subsequently seniors.





mattgroves,


Coalville, United Kingdom,


4 hours ago


I coach U7 at a club that is part of the Kids First programme, I have been on the RFU training for Kids First will openly admit I had an amount of scepticism at the start, but the programme is entirely appropriate and I believe it to be the right things for us to be doing with the kids.

And that’s the important point, KIDS. I think many people are forgetting that we’re talking about kids here. Ask a child why they play Rugby the overwhelming majority say making friends having fun, only 3% of kids said winning (sourced from an RFU survey).

By incentivising the kids to develop skills, solve problems themselves, embrace the culture of Rugby and be part of a team, the natural conclusion of this is that by the time the kids progress from Minis to Juniors they will be team focussed, technically skilled and good decision makers. Therefore, they will be better players, who have a better foundation on which to build as they move into more competitive age groups, and subsequently seniors.



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Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25549503


Rugby Union accused of "going soft" as it tells children"s sides to lose the ...
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