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Rugby News from unexpected places

Brendan Hume

Brendan Hume

Charlie Fox (21)
Great clip - looks like the ball got through the posts though. How good was the pass to the winger in that wind?!?
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Not sure where to put this either, but the Georgian U-18's have defeated Ireland Schools and Italy U-18's in successive penalty shoot outs (after two draws) to make the final of the Under 18 European Championship against France.

Seems that the Georgian march towards the 1st tier of rugby is gathering momentum.

Portugal U-18's also beat Scotland in a penalty shoot out in the next level playoff.
 
Vanuatu Chiefs

Vanuatu Chiefs

Sydney Middleton (9)

Having just survived category 5 cyclone Pam, Vanuatu can do with all the help it can get, including on the sporting field to return to normality asap. Fortunately many aid agencies and volunteers have stepped up to the plate with their incredibly generous financial and value in kind gestures.

I wish to send out a huge thank you to Beau Robinson, co-founder of Suporda: www.suporda.com, the QRU, Sunnybank Rugby Club & all Qld rugby clubs for this sensational rugby kit/gear giving initiative that will greatly benefit our rugby kids and communities and also the Kenyans. Please get behind this drive on Friday 17 April, Saturday 18 April and Sunday 19 April.

Great stuff Beau.
 
USARugger

USARugger

John Thornett (49)
Regardless of opposition that guy has riduculous stride turnover for a player his height, even if he is on the skinny side.

Those are some ridiculously quick feet for a 198+ cm bloke.
 
Antony

Antony

Alex Ross (28)
Interesting chart - in the 6 to 17 year old bracket, rugby participation in the US doubled between 2009 and 2014 to hit the 300,000 mark. Still tiny compared to all the traditional sports, but those are some really solid numbers. Not that far behind something like ice hockey or lacrosse.

11866286_1618918601718810_8919155899020242618_n.png
 
Hugh Jarse

Hugh Jarse

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Wow. 7.6 million child soccer participants in the US. A lot of them must be female. Their Women's Soccer Team is world quality. Their Men's team is not.

Wonder how many of the 300k rugby players are boys compared to girls?
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
Hugh Jarse said:
Wow. 7.6 million child soccer participants in the US. A lot of them must be female. Their Women's Soccer Team is world quality. Their Men's team is not.

Wonder how many of the 300k rugby players are boys compared to girls?
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The US has somewhere between 30-40,000 female participants.

What's interesting apart from the phenomenal growth of Rugby is that the likes of soccer have seen a decline over the same time period. Still strong numbers but still. Should be interesting to see how Rugby performs over the next 5 year period as its only been in recent times that youth Rugby has become a priority. Wouldn't surprise me if we see it double itself again by 2019.
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Yep and that increase in youth participants will start to pay off at elite levels in the next few years. Seems inevitable that the US will be a top team sooner than later. I hope the ARU and SANZAR can capitalise on this.
 
Antony

Antony

Alex Ross (28)
Omar Comin' said:
Yep and that increase in youth participants will start to pay off at elite levels in the next few years. Seems inevitable that the US will be a top team sooner than later. I hope the ARU and SANZAR can capitalise on this.
Click to expand...


I wonder about that - those juniors will go presumably go on to play through college rugby, which (from what I can gather) is around the standard of subbies rugby in Sydney. You can have all the numbers you want, but without a proper, competitive grade system you're going to struggle to get them up to professional and international standard.
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
Well, the RFU are already investing. They've just bought a 15% stake in Rugby Int. Marketing. The for profit wing of USARugby who among other things is looking to establish a Rugby Channel and a pro-league(s).

The general quality of the US youth teams has jumped quite a bit recently. Before they'd struggle to beat their Canadian counterparts and now they account for them 9 out of 10 times. Over 5 million kids have been introduced to the game in recent years. Funnily enough, its not a lack of interest that's slowing its growth. It's the lack of coaches.
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
Antony said:
I wonder about that - those juniors will go presumably go on to play through college rugby, which (from what I can gather) is around the standard of subbies rugby in Sydney. You can have all the numbers you want, but without a proper, competitive grade system you're going to struggle to get them up to professional and international standard.
Click to expand...


True, but you have to take into account that much of the College game is club based with no school support. Hard to increase standards. However, that's changing year on year. More and more schools are adopting the game at Varsity level or providing school support which provides them with much if not all the facilities and funding of Varsity programs.

In the next 5 or so years the College ranks will improve a lot. The kids coming through HS will be of better quality having played longer. What they now need is to sort of the elite competition structures toward professionalism.
 
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