The Junior Gold Cup competition has passed half-time and is well into the second half, but you know already that it is kicking its goals.
The Junior Gold long-term development programme, has been going on since November 2011.
It covered rugby skills, strength and development, and life skills, in 24 centres throughout the country. It was a good programme and families talked up its benefits for their little Johnnies, but there was an elephant in the room.
Or rather, there was no elephant in the zoo—there was no darn competition.
These lads were training their backsides off and toeing the line off-field; they even had some rugged squad sessions—but wouldn’t it have been nice to have had a competition between some of the Junior Gold centres? The boys needed to compete—it’s what boys did.
Now the ARU have established a Junior Gold Cup competition for 15- and 17-year-olds from each centre—48 teams in all. There will be 120 games plus finals. Details about it can be read here.
The pool games started on February 14th and will end March 23rd, to be followed by semi-finals, and the final on April 5th
The Junior Gold Cup Manager for the ARU, Hugh Carpenter, was kind enough to answer some of our questions.
Is the Junior Gold Cup competition achieving it goals and are the boys having a good time?
It is achieving its goals and it proves how important it is to have a true national competition.
The Centres have embraced this concept. The players that have travelled from distant parts are glowing with excitement even when faced with the predicament of three games in three days. This hasn’t fazed them all, possibly making them more determined to prove themselves against their often more-fancied, eastern seaboard counterparts.
Can I also point out how impressive the parental support for these travelling boys has been. South Australia and Victoria toured with a huge entourage.
National competitions for any sport in our big land don’t come cheap do they?
No they don’t; the Centres all had to raise money as part of the running cost of the Junior Gold Cup; the players had to pay levies as well. Some Centres have been able to raise over and above the required amount which will hopefully be used to lower the player levies.
The travel has been rough on a few teams; have there been any hitches?
There is no doubt the logistics of travel and accommodation was always going to be huge in this short time frame. There have been plenty of hitches but nothing too unexpected. The Centre coordinators and ARU staff responsible for bringing the teams together have been nothing short of amazing.
Some of the teams, especially Western Australia and Victoria, had to play games on tour, and a number of them in a short time didn’t they?
Playing multiple games in a week has been the only economically viable way to run this competition. The ARU has been solely responsible for the entire cost of travel and accommodation and we also have to be mindful of players missing days at school. And, to be fair, it hasn’t affected the results of WA or Victoria.
What are the broad-brush results to date, and who is doing better than expected?
Victoria have been outstanding winning four out of four in both Under 15s and Under 17s. If each age group wins their final game at home on Sunday week both teams could top their pools. WA has won four out of five in the Under 17s and drawn the other game.
The interstate teams have shown they are so strong that we are now faced with the prospect of playing Conference finals in places other than Brisbane and Sydney.
As of today Perth, Melbourne and Canberra are all chances of hosting these finals.
The regional teams have also shown they are worthy contenders in this competition teams such as Darling Downs, Central Coast, North Coast, Townsville, Gold Coast and Cairns have all had good wins against traditionally stronger teams.
Has there been anything unusual or interesting in the results to date?
It is very exciting to think that it is still quite possible for a regional team to make at least a conference final and maybe the final. This is a true reflection of what can happen when a level playing field is provided through access and opportunity. Keep eye on North Coast Under 15s, Hunter Under 17s and ACT Under 15s.
Does the ARU have anything similar in mind for female juniors?
At this stage we are fully focussed on ensuring the boys’ Junior Gold Cup remains sustainable.
Girls’ rugby is definitely important. We need more established competitions with greater playing numbers to make the investment into a National Youth Girls’ competition viable. At the moment we are focussing our energy for Women’s rugby around the Sevens game.
What will you change for next year?
When a National Program is run on this scale with so many active volunteers involved, it is imperative that we run an appropriate review. It is important that we receive feedback from those most involved before we make changes.
I’d really like to look at how the Centres are structured to ensure we are getting the very best out of those on the ground from coordinators right through to team management.
Green and Gold feedback
At Green and Gold Rugby we have already received feedback in our Junior Gold Cup forum thread.
If postings in it are any gauge, the Junior Gold Cup competition is getting good wraps from people watching the games. I suspect that they are mostly family members and these folks are sometimes hard to please.
As “Hugie” wrote:
Well done ARU, a big step in the right direction.
And “Delphy” had this to say:
The ARU have not always got things right in recent times, but I have to say that credit is due on this comp. Marshalling 600-odd U17’s round the country cannot have been easy.
Well it is 720 Under 17s actually, if you count only the players, but we shouldn’t forget that there were the same number of Under 15s.
And “10to12” liked the standard of play from outside the main Centres:
I was impressed with South Australia especially with their set pieces which were causing all sorts of problems. I feel that they might have benefited from their road trip as they were not the easy-beats that I was expecting to see.
Maybe he was talking about the two games they played against Sydney South Harbour last Friday in Daceyville. I was there too: the SA Under 17s were hard to toss and the SA Under 15s had the game tied up after oranges but ran out of puff when some stronger boys came off the bench for the locals.
As I wrote about that game: one of things I liked was the comment of the South Australia captain to his team, under their goal posts, waiting for yet another conversion late in the game, when he said:
There’s five minutes to go—make this the best five minutes of rugby you will ever play.
That’s why you need a competition: to bring the best out of the boys. That comment was junior gold.
Links
Junior Gold Cup fixtures, results and ladders.
