Every team from the 13F's to the 1st XV is well aware of where they are situated on the ladder and which team are the big dogs and which team are the easy beats, and so they should because rugby union is a competition and all of the life skills that you have detailed from enjoyment through to mateship etc. are all forged in the fires of winning and losing. How schoolboy players handle the full time whistle and the subsequent self and team evaluations dependant on the result after the game is all part of developing life skills, without the elation of winning or the pain of loss, those life lessons are weakened.
I read somewhere, “winning isn’t everything but wanting to is”, and to say that the First XV games at each school are the only ones that are used to measure the rugby performance of the school each year is nonsensical. That the First XV are the only ones that can play for a premiership is absurd, I am quite sure that the 13 F’s think that their game is important. GPS Rowing and Cross Country events throughout the Queensland GPS school system account for and reward the lower years and grades and the schools performance overall is determined by their effort. GPS Rugby should be the same, we should be allowing those lower and younger teams to account for the days performance every Saturday and an overall school premiership at the end of the year decided on those results. Measure only the teams that can be matched by each school. We might finally then establish who is the best rugby school, who has the best coaches, the greatest depth, rather than who managed to secure the best imports that year.
