Rugby Football Union Report 2007

COMMUNITY RUGBY

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Membership of the England Rugby Football Schools Union continues to grow steadily, with 78 new schools joining this year and there has been a major rise in both Daily Mail Cup and National Emerging Schools participation. There are now over 475 and 590 schools taking part in the Under 18 and Under 15 Daily Mail Schools Cup respectively and 50,000 starting out on their rugby journey played in Emerging Schools Festivals from local to national level.

The Rugby Development Officers work closely with the school sports partnerships, with 93% of the 449 partnerships running rugby union programmes. This is linked to clubs to provide lifelong participation and there are now more than 780 formal written agreements between clubs and schools.

More than 3,600 teachers attended courses this year and some 3,500 young leaders were trained, many through their school, by attending the Community Leaders Award, which adds strong sustainability to the excellent growth of the school game.

The student game also continued to grow, with 11 new university teams in the British Universities Sports Association and eight new college teams in British Colleges Sport Leagues. The Rugby Union Student Liaison Officer and Rugby Development Officers’ targets for the year focused on University Development Plans, helping to ensure a 33% increase on higher and further education links with clubs.

An excellent CD-rom has been developed for the student player-coaches who support so many university teams. It is also encouraging to see that there has been an increase in the number of universities establishing referees societies within the institution. This season also saw the launch of the Community Rugby College Awards scheme which encourages FE Colleges to meet RFU agreed standards in the rugby opportunities they provide to their students and local community.

The English Universities side, drawn from players taking part in this season’s BUSA Championships competed well against an experienced Irish Universities team, before eventually losing 21–10. With a point to prove at Twickenham Stadium they won in style against Combined Services running in six tries to emerge with a 37–6 win.

Superb teamwork enabled England Students to complete a first-ever double victory over France. The Students claimed their first win on French soil in 14 years with a heroic 8–6 win in Cahors and an entertaining performance at Oxford eventually ending 19–10 winners. The players and their coaches are to be congratulated.

The quality of coaching has a huge impact on both the level of enjoyment and the sustainability of the game. The appointment of eight regionally based Coach Development Officers (CDOs) has had a significant impact on the number of coaches the department is training and qualifying to support the playing of the game.

In the spring of 2007, the Head of Coach Development, Evan Crawford, left us to take up a post in his homeland, New Zealand. Evan joined the RFU almost six years ago, and has made a considerable contribution by leading the RFU’s endeavours to be one of the world leaders in coach development. Gary Henderson was appointed to replace Evan in July, and has since appointed Gary Townsend to the vacant National Coaching Development Manager post.

The number of coaches qualifying through the RFU’s Coaching Award scheme increased by 7% over the previous year, with pleasing rises in particular at Levels 2 and 3. These are the coaches who will lead the development of players in schools, colleges and clubs.

The RFU’s coaching is now delivered in partnership with the Accredited Awarding Body for Sports Coaching – 1st4Sport. The first coaches attended the United Kingdom Coaching Council (UKCC) designed level 3 this year, which is a pilot course and a sports leader, following Levels 1 and 2 courses. All the candidates on this more advanced course passed with flying colours and more courses are being provided on a regional rather than national basis making them more accessible. The new Level 4 coaching award has recruited its third set of coaches and is currently being reviewed in line with changes to the UK Coaching Certificate. The second group of 10 coaches participating in the high performance Level 5 programme attended their final workshops in July. In line with UKCC developments, the future of this course is being reviewed.