Country Schools pull out of tournaments
Country schools competed for the last time in NSW Schools Opens selection matches last Friday at the Curugal Fields in North Turramurra.
The Country boys who competed at Curugal were selected after the June long weekend NSW Country Schools Rugby Union Championships at The Armidale School. This used to be a good experience in itself for the country lads but now it is no more either.
According to Matt de Dassel, President of the NSW Country Schools Rugby Union:
This decision, not taken lightly, is a result of the changing landscape of schoolboy rugby union in NSW.
NSW Country Schools was set up in 1977 specifically to address the lack of opportunity for regionally based players to gain access to NSW Schools representative teams.
But De Dassel indicated that the need to provide opportunities now was not so relevant.
These opportunities have improved through other pathways in the ensuing years with the Independent Schools Association (ISA), Combined High Schools (CHS), Combined Catholic Colleges (CCC) and more recently the Association of Independent Co-Educational Schools (AICES) all offering pathways for boys in regional schools.
In other words, probably, there are not enough numbers in the Country areas outside of the school associations mentioned above to justify having a separate Country Schools team and the Country Championship to pick the players for it.
This is a shame for NSW regional rugby kids who don’t go to private schools in the schools, associations mentioned above, but it’s not a lot different for city kids these days outside of the big rugby schools. Not many village clubs cater for older boys.
