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I know the coaching staff at TSS are under pressure considering they have not won a premiership in some time.

It seems everyone is intent on misunderstanding my rowing opinion so I'll drop it saying only that I've seen Howard play since year 8 and it's my personal opinion he would benefit his rugby by toning down his rowing in favour of other training. Back on the firsts, id dearly love to see TGS get...

No just a parent of a year 12 boy trying out for the firsts. I simply dropped the names I knew and had heard from this forum and the response was that the 16s looking good for spots were not the names I gave. It wasn't more in depth or insightful than that. I never really asked how he knew.

Chatting last night to a GT parent I heard the likes of Howard and White, and even Hartland are not likely to start. There'll only be a few 16s in the firsts and not the ones we're talking about. So GT will have a mostly year 12 firsts.

Doesn't the gentleman's agreement around the firsts mean you can't be a discounted student to play? If so, why would you offer a full fee discount to a kid who cannot play firsts?

** Edited your post so there isn't a wall of test **. I agree with you, but for me this is perfect world stuff. A school needs 30 coaches (2 per team) just for A,B, and C teams and only for the senior school. 30 coaches across the 8 schools is 240 coaches for GPS schools alone. I'm sorry, but...

Agree with some except: 15 - Probably not worth picking a winner, but I'd back BSHS. 16 - NC 2nds - TSS 1sts - Heart says TGS, Head says NC.

This is not what I heard, I've also been told GT do not offer full fee relief, unless the new principal has changed things.

GT lost 3 of their best players against NC, so I am sure that had a lot to do with it. It was also at the end of the season in the traditional GT v NC grudge match and that does lift both schools. I don't know why you think you can judge teams on scores, I mean I know IGS only lost to BBC on...

Sad to here that, and fair points. When I say rubbish I refer to a few things, their entire game plan, defense, line out, scrum, and breakdown. BBC kicked most of their ball away, sat back on their heels in defence, lost too many of their own line outs, and even lost their own scrums. It...

After last year you'd expect a pretty strong 1st XV without too many 16s in the starting side.

Ah, I see. It's not uncommon to see boys change schools in years 8 to 10 these days. I wonder if that's because they go to a school and it's not what they expected, wanted, promised, etc. GT need all the help they can get in that age group. I see most of the BSHS games each year, and last year...

Tom Barker is the coaching director at GT now isn't he? ACGS do the same thing, so this top down coaching right through the age groups is a thing now. Coaches tend not to follow age groups, they stay. So All these teams in the 15s would have new coaches with only rare exceptions. There was a...

BSHS have the cattle, but their coaching structure needs work. They were a better team than their results last year and that came down to a lot of missed chances. Definitely a shame immersion takes away from the 15s. GT play NC in a pre-season trial so I think the boys will treat that as a...

Yeah if the kid wants to, then go for it. We're just observing that the statement that rowing is good for rugby is a lot more grey than that and not always true. It also gets grey when the coach is encouraging or perhaps forcing kids to do other sports, as the accusation is at BBC. If the kid...

It's the inappropriately tight tops, skin tight jeans, knee high boots ... I swear they haven't turned up to their kids rugby match!

See if it's all about cardio then rowing is absolutely beneficial, but say you need speed, you'd be developing massive slow twitch muscles when what you need is fast twitch. If you want a fast winger, you send him to track and field, so he gets speed! Rowing is like doing thousands of reps...

Rowing is one of the best cardio workouts you can do for rugby (or any sport), second to swimming and up there with cycling. However, for strength training, it fails to provide much of what is essential for various positions in rugby. It can also reduce the speed of a player by developing the...

Howard is the poster boy for why rowing is bad for your rugby. At least in my opinion anyway. He would have to have done some serious work in the off season to play 6 for GT, but he's also a talent worth developing.

At 6? I suppose if he isn't at prop that might suit him. Howard is a ball runner I suppose. I wonder if he's beefed up since last year, perhaps if he had filled out a tad muscle wise (I'm sure he could have) then I could see him at 6.