Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
Latest activity
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Help Support The Rugby Forum :
Forums
Rugby Union
General Rugby Union
Ideas to improve the standard of rugby in the NH
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="j&#039;nuh" data-source="post: 516335" data-attributes="member: 55446"><p>In a few of the NH countries (England, France, Scotland), football is the number one sport, and there's little media attention towards rugby. I'd say I'm a pretty devoted rugby fan, but I only watched my first rugby (league) game at 16. I was 17 when I watched my first union game. (From what I gather, this isn't unusual for a rugby fan in England, but would someone from the SANZAR nations be able to hold off watching rugby for that long?) I could have gotten into the sport a lot earlier, but I had no one ever telling me I should give it a go (media or friends). I've only ever had three friends who have cared about rugby in some form. (So spontaneous rugby with friends is out of the question.)</p><p></p><p>I was a <em>big</em> kid. One of the tallest, definitely the heaviest. It would have taken a pack of kids to pull me down. (Then everyone went past me in puberty... not bitter at all.) Still, no one thought to give me a rugby ball and make me throw kids half my weight aside. I was put on a football pitch instead, and was crap. If I was born in NZ, <em>someone</em> would have forced me onto a rugby pitch when I was a kid and I might have actually been half-good.</p><p></p><p>In countries like England, a lot of people join the game at a much later age. Most physical development happens in puberty so the NH hasn't missed out on matching the SH physically. However, the SH has years more experience of ball handling skills. Smaller framed players in the SH have had years to develop their strength and other skills, whereas their English counterparts fear joining the game because they don't have the talent in other ways to make up for their feebleness. We could be missing out on the next Jason Robinson because he's too worried about all the boys being bigger than him. (This has certainly made me worried about playing the sport.)</p><p></p><p>We need to abandon creating a rugby-mad nation. Won't compete with football. Instead, create rugby hotbeds with the same kind of passion for rugby that you see in New Zealand. New Zealand has dominated rugby for most of the last decade with a population just a bit more than half that of London. I find it hard to believe that we'll struggle to turn a few regions containing about 5-6 million people into ardent rugby fans. Spreading talent out across a large area just means that talent gets isolated and lost. If, instead, you concentrate talent into pockets, then sports colleges can draw upon and develop the best. Hartpury college alone has developed Charlie Sharples, Jonny May, Henry Trinder, Alex Cuthbert, Dan Tuohy, Ryan Mills, Tom Savage and more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="j'nuh, post: 516335, member: 55446"] In a few of the NH countries (England, France, Scotland), football is the number one sport, and there's little media attention towards rugby. I'd say I'm a pretty devoted rugby fan, but I only watched my first rugby (league) game at 16. I was 17 when I watched my first union game. (From what I gather, this isn't unusual for a rugby fan in England, but would someone from the SANZAR nations be able to hold off watching rugby for that long?) I could have gotten into the sport a lot earlier, but I had no one ever telling me I should give it a go (media or friends). I've only ever had three friends who have cared about rugby in some form. (So spontaneous rugby with friends is out of the question.) I was a [I]big[/I] kid. One of the tallest, definitely the heaviest. It would have taken a pack of kids to pull me down. (Then everyone went past me in puberty... not bitter at all.) Still, no one thought to give me a rugby ball and make me throw kids half my weight aside. I was put on a football pitch instead, and was crap. If I was born in NZ, [I]someone[/I] would have forced me onto a rugby pitch when I was a kid and I might have actually been half-good. In countries like England, a lot of people join the game at a much later age. Most physical development happens in puberty so the NH hasn't missed out on matching the SH physically. However, the SH has years more experience of ball handling skills. Smaller framed players in the SH have had years to develop their strength and other skills, whereas their English counterparts fear joining the game because they don't have the talent in other ways to make up for their feebleness. We could be missing out on the next Jason Robinson because he's too worried about all the boys being bigger than him. (This has certainly made me worried about playing the sport.) We need to abandon creating a rugby-mad nation. Won't compete with football. Instead, create rugby hotbeds with the same kind of passion for rugby that you see in New Zealand. New Zealand has dominated rugby for most of the last decade with a population just a bit more than half that of London. I find it hard to believe that we'll struggle to turn a few regions containing about 5-6 million people into ardent rugby fans. Spreading talent out across a large area just means that talent gets isolated and lost. If, instead, you concentrate talent into pockets, then sports colleges can draw upon and develop the best. Hartpury college alone has developed Charlie Sharples, Jonny May, Henry Trinder, Alex Cuthbert, Dan Tuohy, Ryan Mills, Tom Savage and more. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Rugby Union
General Rugby Union
Ideas to improve the standard of rugby in the NH
Top