News from Ballina Rugby Club

During 2010 we will be putting a monthly newsletter together to keep everyone associated with our Junior Seahorses up to date with all of the latest news and events. There is also a part draw in there showing the next 4 or 5 rounds for all grades. A printed copy of the newsletter will also be available at training tonight, so please grab a copy and stick it on the fridge.

PDF Version of the Newsetter is here

The Ballina Junior Seahorses were away last Friday night in the 8s, 10s & 16s. The 12s & 13s had the week off due to the Junior Country Championships being played in Lismore over the weekend.

Under 8s

The Under 8s travelled to Bangalow and came away with a draw making 3 Draws from 3 games ! Players showed improvement with their Ball Skills, tagging and field position and it was a very entertaining game.

 Under 10s

The Under 10s made the trek to Lismore to take on the Lismore White Under 10s and despite trying hard all game and playing some good football at times, unfortunately were a little outclassed by a side that obviously had some guys playing in their 2nd year of Under 10s. These older boys jumped on any mistakes the Ballina boys made and showed them what areas of the game we need to work on.  The Ballina players showed a fighting spirit all night and tried valiantly until the final whistle. Jarred, Hamish, Alecki and Hayden ran with purpose all game and broke many tackles with Hayden being unlucky not to score a try. Zach led his forwards well with some fine running and tackling. Ryley, Dre, Malik and Heath tussled well all night in the mauls against the older kids. Kyuss tackled  some of their bigger guys really well. Very proud of all the lads as they never gave up and are turning into a very competitive outfit. Well done Under 10s.

 Under 16s

The Under 16s provided sound opposition to a Casino team that sported  a couple of large and fast backs who provided tries at crucial times in the game. The Ballina forwards played very well and retained a very reasonable 50-65% of possession in the first half. Tries in the first half to Will Budden and second half to James Heath kept the Ballina team in touch but were not enough to put Ballina on the winners list. Great defensive games were had by Djati Harrison and Corey Power in the backs and forwards were well led by try scorer Grant Knight and James Heath while Tom Carruthers continues to impress as his confidence builds with his lineout technique.

Ballina Junior Rugby Union play their first games at home this Friday night with all grade represented. The bar will be open from 6pm and all club member are welcome to attend. There will be a jersey presentation to each of the grades.

The club had a good start to the season last weekend, and while the results didn’t go our way, overall the club was well represented.

The under 8s played with spirit and had a hard game against the Lennox Head under 8s.

The under 10s and 12s played at Yamba and by all reports played well.

The under 13s under the watchful eye of first time coach Craig Dangar, were soundly beaten by Lennox Head, but played the game hard. In his round up of the game, Craig, noted the hard tackling of his team, and that there was an excellent base for the season ahead.

The club has enjoyed an excellent start to the season, with first, second and third grade undefeated, and under 19s one from two after a hard fought loss to Grafton on the weekend.

The club travelled down to Grafton in all grades on the weekend, with a bus provided and a Hawaiian theme for the trip home. Special mention should go to Robbo who forgot to bring a Hawaiian shirt for the night and was suitably rewarded for his effort.

The games against Grafton were played in good spirit and without Ballina giving an inch.

First grade started in a lethargic manner, which is common after the bus trip down, most pleasingly is that they played the entire 80 minutes, and although behind after 30 minutes maintained sustained pressure and finally ran up four tries in a 26 – 8 victory. Whilst this was the second bonus point from two weeks, the team still has a long way to go to play as a cohesive unit and will be looking forward to Jerry’s loving touch during the week.

The game was very stop start, with scrums being on the menu as top billing, Syd was heard to retract a statement earlier in the week that he loved scruming and Chucky decided to give away a few penalties just to have a break.

Second Grade controlled the game from the opening whistle, with two coaches who should have known better pulling on the boots, the game was a tough fought encounter. Special mention needs to go to Brent Horan, who not only coaches the team but also had several blistering runs from the back of the maul an done chip and chase that will go down in memory.

Any backs who can spare an hour tomorrow from 4pm who can help out with the Emmanuel College under 13s would be greatly appreciated. The team is getting ready to travel to Armidale for the TAS Carnical on the weekend, and while they have been getting quality training and education from a prop, there is an acknowledgement that since the prop rarely lifts his head out of a scrum he actually doesn’t know what goes on (assumptions to date have been finger painting or knitting).

They start training at 4pm at Ballina Rugby Ground and will be finished by 5ish.

If you are able to help please email Craig cgd@Live.com.au or Ross Wilkinson rosswilkinson@optusnet.com.au

The ARU-Ballina Rugby-Sportspower Secondary Schools Invitational Rugby Tournament has been hailed a success for providing some fantastic inter-school rugby and adding to the sporting equipment resources of all participating schools & colleges.

The inaugural event was hosted by the Ballina Junior Rugby Club on Wednesday 24^th March 2010 and local schools shared in over eleven hundred dollars worth of equipment supplied by the Ballina Rugby Club and event sponsor Sportspower.

The standard of rugby was high and was matched by the behaviour and sportsmanship of all students. Organisers said that the teachers and students are to be commended for the manner in which they represented their respective schools.

ARU North Coast Development Manager Bruce Frame has already discussing next year’s tournament with the Ballina Rugby Club before the end of Wednesday’s event.

Teams were entered from Southern Cross K12, Emmanuel Anglican College, Ballina High, Xavier Catholic College, Evans River K12 and South Grafton High and whilst all schools received equipment on the day, the winners of each age division were Xavier Catholic College Under 14s Boys, Evans River K12 Under 16s Boys & Under 16s Girls and Southern Cross K12 in the Opens Boys.

A massive thankyou to everyone involved in organising and running the day including Jackie Hart, Emily Hart, Deb Wilkinson & Judy Smith for running the canteen, Poppa Gallaher who did everything from canteen duties to cleaning out the change rooms, Lyster Hart our President (and his next door neighbour) for many hours preparation and being able to work out my cumulative scoring tables to decide the winning teams, referees Karlo Lupton (referee/cook/vacuum lady), Chris Wilkinson, Callum O’Grady, Steve Miller, Ian Hooper and Rob Walker, ARU Development Managers Bruce & Steve, Medic Jed Peisley and also to Mick (Super Announcer) McGregor and Michael Lord from the Senior club whose presence there enabled me to concentrate on any other duties during the day. Overall, a great club effort.

Ross Wilkinson

Junior Club Publicity Officer.

Coaching Kids Rugby / Smart Rugby is on tonight

A reminder to ALL coaches and managers that the Coaching Kids Rugby course, which incorporates Smart Rugby accreditation, is on tonight 23^rd March at the club house at 6pm.

Smart Rugby accreditation is mandatory for anyone involved in coaching rugby and lasts for 2 years and can then be renewed on-line for a further 2 years.

We would encourage any parents or family members who may be even slightly interested in doing the course to come along tomorrow night as it is FREE.

Cheers,

Admin

The touring team, competed in the Armidale 15s over the weekend, and in a pleasing set of results, didn’t drop a game on the Sunday.

The boys enjoyed a night of movies and popcorn on the Friday night, with early nights in anticipation of the big games ahead. Saturday night was a more celebrated affair, after the win against Robb, the squad enjoyed a few sherbets in the bar before retiring to bed before midnight.

The team had a strong win against Robb College, with perfect decision making on the field being the factor between victory and defeat.

The other two games of the weekend were played in great spirit, and while we were lacking the numbers of the other squads, including field 6 props on the field due to injury during the last game, the positives outweighed the negatives and all coaches were happy with the performances. Unfortunately we couldn’t repeat our performances against Armidale and Tamworth, but several individual performances were well above expectation.

Player of the tour was Andrew Burke, who led the team in all aspects of his game, even wearing a salt overdose from the popcorn on Friday night, special mention needs to go to our coaches, Hooran and Dok who both played significant game time.  Youth played up a storm at 5/8 and Eli was dominant at no.8.

The guys would like to extend a thanks to the Royal Hotel in Armidale, they provided with excellent facilities and anyone visiting the town can’t go wrong in the Royal. Thanks also to Armidale Rugby Club for hosting the event, whlilst we didn’t leave with the cash the squad had a great time.

Ballina Rugby Union welcomed the Moree Bulls for the first annual Rooster Trophy. The origins of the Trophy have not been fully explained but it is sufficient to thank Mick Koellner for his friendly welcome for the Moree team.

The game was played in excellent spirits with Moree winning the game by 2 points. The tries were 3 each.

The coaching staff were impressed with the entire playing group and the heavy preseason is showing great results. The playing group, whilst suffering from Jerry and Mick are happy with their input and looking forward to more core exercises.

In a shock to the entire club Dangar scored the first try, and has been reminding everyone since, it will be a long season. Pumpa scored one as well, and is being as obnoxious as Dangar about it.

Ballina are looking forward to the trip out west next year and all the players would like to identify Sparrow, Koelner and Longy as the guilty parties. Leave passes will need to be granted for the Thursday to Sunday for next year’s trip.

Junior player numbers are building with quite a few new faces at our first sign-on held last Wednesday evening. Those who have already signed on are encouraged to talk to your mates at school to get them to sign up as well. It doesn’t matter if they have never played before as we have a strong coaching panel in place this year to look after that side of things. Having fun playing rugby with your mates is what junior rugby is all about.

The Junior club is pleased to announce that the coaching panel includes a number of 1st graders from the senior club, and this year there will be several guest visits from the senior playing group.

Junior Players: Don’t forget to give the sign-on committee your shirt size at sign-on so that we can order your 2010 club polo shirt. All players will receive socks, shorts and club polo shirt.

There will be another sign-on day held at the club accompanied by a sausage sizzle on next Saturday the 6th of March from 1:00pm – 3:00pm. For junior players and their families wanting an early season taste of rugby, the senior club will be playing a trial match against Moree later that day with kick off during the afternoon, this will give you a good chance to enjoy some good local rugby and see some of the coaches have a run around.

Training will commence on Wednesday the 10th of March and the season kicks off a few weeks later.

We are still looking for volunteers to help out with some afternoon coaching sessions at a couple of the local schools during March. It is a great way to get some coaching experience and to promote the junior club within the Ballina schools. Please email the club on info@ballinarugby.com.au if you are able to spare an hour here and there.

PARENTS:
Remember there is a Coaching Kids Rugby clinic on at our club house on Tuesday March 23 starting at 6:00pm. It is run by the ARU Development Manager, is FREE and it automatically covers the Smart Rugby requirements for coaching juniors. We would urge as many parents as possible to come along and take advantage of this free course. Accreditation lasts for 2 years after which time it can be renewed on-line.