News from Ballina Rugby Club

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.

After a shock that the Nose would be no longer be allowed to play football, a reprieve has been granted and the Nose will be playing in 2010.

This week the Nose will not be explaining what he had to do in order to gain a leave pass for the season, and will not be dispelling any of the rumours that price was incredible…

Preseason is upon us and the Nose would like to cover injury prevention and not over doing in the run up to the start of the season. Stretching becoming important and wherever possible make sure that you stretch for at least 15 minutes before the commencement of a training session or fitness session. Also take an opportunity to stretch in your own time, whether it just be giving the hamstring a workout in the morning or a dedicated twenty minutes at night.

With all training suggested by the Nose the most important thing is that you should no over do it.

Your questions answered

Firstly the 300 questions about the price to play this year have been ignored, but the Nose will be happy to explain the price over a few beers, incidently if you would like to have a beer with the Nose you will need to get permission beforehand, the requirements for this include an agenda for the expected time for the beer, expectation of how many beers will be consumed, providing a cab charge for the Nose to get home, emergency contact numbers, and a second mortgage over your house in case the Nose is late getting home. This will need to be lodged at least a month before the beer is to be consumed.

Can you explain why all the club props are getting fit this year? There has been a rumour that the props have started their own version of the biggest loser and will be having Monday night weigh ins.

Can you explain how you are leading the tipping comp? Mrs Nose makes all the decisions in my house.

What has happened to Boony, I thought he was over 80kg? I think the more important question is why is Boony cutting his own hair.

BALLINA JUNIORS TRAIN WITH THE WARATAH’S

17 of our juniors from the under 10s and Under 12s took part in a training clinic on Saturday 23rd January at the Southern Cross Uni ground in Lismore. The kids were pretty hyped up and they were rewarded by training with a great group of Waratah’s players that included super stars Phil Waugh and Berrick Barnes and former Ballina and now Waratah’s Head Coach Chris Hickey.

Click on the link to see our boys rubbing shoulders with Phil Waugh.

http://www.nbntv.com.au/index.php/2010/01/23/waratahs-do-it-for-the-kids/

Keep an eye on this website in the coming days for a full report and photo gallery from the training clinic.

http://www.ballinaadvocate.com.au/story/2010/02/04/rugby-juniors-train-stars/

Junior Retention and Recruitment in Full Swing

Junior sign-on dates have been set and the drive to retain current and recruit new players is now in full swing.
There will be two sign-on days held at the club accompanied by a sausage sizzle and also a chance to watch the Senior Far North Coast rep team training.
The important dates are Wednesday 24th February from 5:30 – 7:30pm and Saturday 6th March from 1:00 – 3:00pm.

17 boys from the 10s & 12s recently attended a “Train With The Waratahs” clinic at the Southern Cross Uni ground and those boys are now raring to go in 2010 (watch this space for upcoming video and photos of the clinic).

We have run a Ballina Junior Rugby information table at Ballina Central and Ballina Fair over the last two Saturdays and have had a positive response from the community. We will be seeing some new faces in the juniors as a result of the information tables and a big thankyou goes out to the volunteers who helped as part of our recruitment drive.

We are also looking for volunteers to help out with some afternoon coaching sessions at a couple of the local schools during February. It is a great way to get some coaching experience and to promote the junior club within the Ballina schools. The first one will be at Emmanuel Anglican College on Tuesday 23rd of February from 3:30pm to 4:30pm. Please email the club if you are able to assist.

The ARU and Ballina Juniors are hosting the inaugural ARU Ballina Secondary Schools Invitational Rugby Gala Day at our home ground on Wednesday March 24. The boys will play a 10-a-side format whilst the girls will be a 7-a-side competition. We will be looking for some volunteers to assist ARU Development Manager Bruce Frame with the running of the event. Groundsmen, time-keepers, scorers and canteen staff are all required. There should be some great free flowing rugby and the girls 7-a-side games will finally allow the local girls to participate in rugby on the Far North Coast.

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.

The under 19 squad will be training with the senior squad until the commencement of the season, under the guidance of head coach Mick McGregor and the senior coaching team. The year is shaping up well for the squa with key players returning and some new faces which should make a huge improvement on last year.

Under 19s players will enjoy significantly reduced fees for the 2010 season with a cap on fees of $50, and these fees being refunded in full at the end of the year for any players who play at least 8 games.

With over 40 players already attending the training sessions at Flatrock the squad is looking good for the year ahead. The club is looking forward to strong showings in all grades, with competition for all spots.