Fresh from the NSW Junior RU State Championships.
In the 2014 JGC Under 17, there were 6 NSW Regional Centres, and 4 Sydney Centres established.
Kids from all over were invited to try out for the programme: Fivekick, Schools, Current Village Club players, Lapsed Village Club players.
In Sydney alone, apparently 250 kids attended the trials in an attempt to get a gig in one of the 4 teams.
Fast forward to June Long Weekend and the NSW JRU State Champs. The investment in Under 17 JGC has resulted in a staggering 7 representative teams register for the U17 division of the State Champs: 2 from NSW Country and 5 from Metro.
From a casual glance through the playing lists of a couple of the Metro teams, comparing the nominated players against the list of registered players in the SJRU Buddha system, there has been some generous use of the eligibility dispensation system for one of the Sydney teams, and another has listed 6/25 as playing Colts rugby.
According to a poster in another thread, the Hunter U17 JGC group has decided that too much rugby is enough, and while participating in the NSW CJRU championships, they declined to attend the State Champs.
I was hoping to see a flow on into Village Club rugby from interest in the JGC. This year that clearly has not been the case.
One wonders if the inclusion of the Fivekick boys in the programme over the summer has resulted in an outflow of boys across to the dark side, rather than an inflow from Loig to Rugby. Enemy agents, disguised as potential code hoppers, would have had free access to our boys all summer and have possibly enticed some boys across to Greco-Roman Rugby.
Either that or the JGC programme was so poor in execution that very few were enticed to continue the experience over the winter.