I hope you are right but Shore are almost always very competitive in the younger age groups as the boys are right into their club sport. The problem is that as club sport tails off, as the boys get older, so do the Shore results in the older years. It also happens in soccer and afl. There is a problem with the sporting culture in the school. I notice the successful rowers do much of their training in camps away from the school. Shore were totally outclassed today in both firsts and seconds. The Kings firsts bombed a few try’s and it could have easily been 70-80 to nil. Frankly, both the shore and kings crowd lost interest. The faces of the shore firsts after showers indicated that they are also losing interest.
I'm sure there are many reasons for Shore having a dismal win/loss ratio in the 1sts over the last several years. Many of those reasons have been debated extensively on the Thread That Shall Not Be Mentioned.
Shore is a huge rugby school and essential to the continued health of GPS rugby. However it's recent record in 1sts must draw into question the educational benefits of staying in the competition. High and Grammar withdrew for exactly the same reason.
If the Shore Headmaster continues to refuse (or at best minimise) sporting scholarships, then all the best training regimes in the world will not lift their results because the "cattle" are not available. Despite a lot of effort by the school in upgrading their training programs, the 1sts are still losing.
Can you imagine what it was like for the boys when they played two rounds of GPS comp without a win?
At least one round enables more equitable match-ups during the trials.
Sustained losing seasons at 1st XV level does the players no good, isn't good for the school as a whole, and gives the other GPS schools a lop sided game whenever they play Shore.
I'd suggest that Shore 1sts play all other GPS 2nds from next year onwards.
