Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
Joeys remains the gold standard regardless of the first XV performance cycles and the Arms Race that is being pursued by some other schools.
ARU are in deep doodoo if the Catholic schooling system in general, and Marist Brothers and Jesuits in particular, decide to drop rugby to focus on another winter sport.
Perhaps one of the more mathematically inclined Gaggerlanders could produce a KPI metric similar to the Shute Shield Club Championship calculations to monitor overall School Rugby programme performance, rather than just the performance of the rock-stars in 1st XV, which we have seen can so easily be manipulated with late entries and selective enrolments,
ie 1st XV results accounting for 25% of the overall mark for the School, 2nd XV is 10%, 3rd XV and 4th XV is 5%, 16's is worth 20% (A's 10%, B's 5% and C's 5%), 15's is worth 15%(A's 10%, B's 2.5%, C's 2.5%), and 14's and 13's are worth 10% each (A's 5%, B's 2.5%, C's 2.5%).
It doesn't need school systems to drop rugby - the participants are already voting with their feet.
This year Kings only go down to 13E rugby and 13 H soccer.
In all schools, 13s is usually the high water mark for participation. Kings will be lucky to field a 16Cs in 3 years time if the usual drop off occurs.
I posted this break down of 2014 participation rugby v soccer a few pages back. Not pretty reading for any rugby supporter and the trend everywhere (except at TSC) is going against us .
teams (rugby/soccer)
J 41/16
E 38/21
S 30/22
K 31/38
N 26/31
G 12/30
H 12/30
I ?