The correct title for the State Champs are NSWJRU Age Championships - the obligation of NSWJRU is to organise a tournament for the betterment of its constituent members - SJRU & Country Juniors.
Yes the structure of rugby is outdated and overcomplicated and it was like that in 2000 (and quite likely 1980 and earlier).
Garling identified quite bluntly the turf war for "junior rugby" in all its manifestations, in his report but still the poobahs at NSWRU thought all was OK. Hopefully a new (juniors) board delegate who more properly knows the true needs / state of Junior rugby, rather than the oxygen thief who was allegedly representing the best interests of juniors in the past might be able to get some traction.
An uphill battle.
What do you see as the optimal structure?
The reason I ask is that I'm not sure that thieving oxygen is the reason prior committees thought everything was OK - I am pretty sure they did not see everything as OK but the clubs were seen to benefit from this idea that everyone was working towards 16s where there was a national championship.
Now that is no more.
I suspect that there may be medium to long term implications for player numbers from 13-15 inclusive when it becomes widely known that there is no longer anything official happening at the end of 16s.
It has been "replaced" by JGC - as to which see my posts in that thread for some gauge on the standard there - in which the village clubs have zero say and for which you need not play any rugby other than in JGC. It seems to me that the marginal kids (i.e. the ones who play league, AFL, soccer) with some ability will get the full blown ARU program without committing to the game one iota.
In short: it was a mess and now its a self destructive frigging mess.
