Digby
You have touched on a change that has been silently creeping in to the Brisbane GPS Schools competitions.
The number of boys now doing Year 12 over 2 years is growing. In fact, I know that a couple of schools are actively seeking out and encouraging the boys and their families that it will be in their best interests to do the Year 12 over two years.
At this age, one year of growth can make a massive difference and if you can get the average age of a team even 6 months to 9 months higher than the rest, the advantage is huge.
TSS almost have this advantage built in to their school system for the Opens in Rugby as they have been aligned to the NSW schools system for a long time with a six month delay in their age intake. This will start working its way out when the current year 6 cohort across the whole of QLD reach year 12 (as this year was aligned to NSW when the Prep year was introduced - also a note to NSW readers, the QLD Open Schoolboy teams should only get better with this average age increase coming through in about 2020).
Look at TSS Open results over the past couple of years, particularly under the First XV level and you will see a noticeable change from the results that were recorded in the age group levels. I think last year every Open TSS team except the Firsts were undefeated (stand to be corrected). That half year of maturity makes a difference.
But other schools have recognised this "natural" advantage and have sort out, and I know of one case described as "undue" pressure has been applied, to take the two year option for completing year 12. For which party (the student, the school, the coach) is it in the best interest for this to occur?
Yes, there was a time that "repeating" Year 12 was the way to go, but it appears as though this option has declined over the years. And now there is this planned approach to spreading the final year of school over two years.
This year, there should also be a sizeable shift in some of the age group results at the higher skill level with the change of under age group rules in rugby comp. Players born after the 1 November in the preceding year to the actual age group were eligible to play in that age group until this season. Now you have to be born from 1 January in that age group year top be eligible for that year group. Some schools I am hearing are "losing" up to a third of their "A" team to the higher age groups - which also suggests that even that couple of months older gave boys an advantage when they were playing in the age group below them.