The Tasman Rugby Union has kicked off a new youth programme to help arrest a perceived decrease in participation levels among younger age groups.
The new initiative began this week under the guidance of Tasman Academy development officer Gary Stevens and is targeting years 7-10 students, both male and female, across 15 schools throughout the Tasman region.
The new skill development programme is intended to increase player numbers between under-13 and under-19 age groups – an area, according to Stevens, that’s been identified by the Tasman union as being a problem in terms of player retention.
“Something that everyone’s highlighted over the last five years is that drop off of teenage engagement when they get to about 14 or 15 years old . . . and the next drop off is when they leave school,” Stevens said.
“There’s a clear indication that over a five or six-year period we’re just not filling the holes any more.
“The programme is designed to encourage participation for first-timers and re-engage players in rugby through a well-organised and resourced development programme.
“So the main thrust of the whole programme is to get kids engaged early and even though we’re a rugby institution, we’re actually going in with pretty generic, cross-code type games and skills, everything that’s really going to be supportive of any team sport out there.”
The programme will work alongside current sports curriculum or as an introductory programme at the relevant schools. It will provide age-specific knowledge and skill development including: generic ball skills, safe technique in tackles, set piece play, plus an introduction to the laws of the game and physical conditioning specific to rugby and instruction on how to play the game.
The programme culminates in a tournament-style competition involving four fortnightly games. Intermediate grades will play 10-a-side and years nine and 10 will play either 10 or 15-a-side, depending on numbers.
While there is currently a selection of 15 intermediate and secondary schools involved in the programme “from Picton to Golden Bay”, Stevens hopes to eventually increase the number to 20.
Besides Stevens, there will be input from Tasman’s community rugby manager Kahu Marfell, Car Company junior development officers Mitchell Scott and Shaun Begg, both sub-unions’ RDOs and the Waitohi’s club’s junior development officer, Ross Geldenhuys.
“Another clear objective is for the Makos to be actively engaged with the community,” Stevens said.
“Another reason for grabbing those groups is that they’re quite a large group. We’re looking at up to 350 kids . . . so that’s a great base of players to have an effect on.”
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