Ulster Rugby - Annual Report 2017-18

The U15 Girls season ended with a successful ‘blitz’ Cup and Bowl Competition at Mid-Ulster Sports Arena. The Youth Competition Committee was also tasked with arranging the League Finals at U14, U16 and U18 levels at Mid-Ulster Sports Arena, as well as the Girls U15 and U18 Cup Finals. The Boys Plate, Bowl and Shield Finals were all played at Mid-Ulster Sports Arena in April. The Cup Finals were held at Kingspan Stadium on 28th April 2018. Ulster Rugby was fortunate to have Ulster Carpets continue its sponsorship of the Youth League and Cup Competitions. The Clubs who won the Monthly Ulster Carpets Awards were not only pleased to be recognised for their work and effort, but were also very appreciative of the reward of equipment and coaching sessions to help continue the development of their players. CCROs worked with the Clubs to recruit those new to rugby and those who returned to the game. The Youth Committee and the Clubs worked closely with the Elite Player Development Program. The Elite Player Management team identified potential players from the league games, who were then selected for the Regional Development Squads. Some of those may go on to achieve provincial and national representative honours. It is through this programme that players are also selected for inclusion in the Ulster Rugby Academy. MINI RUGBY Forty-four clubs provided mini rugby at the start of the season, ensuring that right across the province children were given the opportunity to participate in the sport. A survey was carried out into participation throughout the province in October 2017 which indicated that numbers remained healthy within Ulster. Armagh RFC hosted this season’s Aviva festival that saw twenty boys’ and five girls’ teams participating in an excellent day’s activity. Unfortunately, the festivals in the rest of the country had to be postponed due to the inclement weather. Ulster however was well represented in the rearranged festival in Leinster with four clubs able to make the journey in April. The culmination of the Aviva National festival series was the National event at the Aviva Stadium on 18th May. Ulster was well represented with four U10 boys’ sides, from Banbridge, Lisburn, Randalstown and Monaghan being joined by City of Armagh U12 girls. The two areas identified at the start of the season as a focus for mini rugby development in the province were the development of the U12 age group and the registration of all club mini rugby players. Sterling work by the Branch development staff ensured that both areas showed a significant improvement during the course of the year. However, this needs to be continued to ensure that the game continues to grow. Numbers only increased in Clubs with existing healthy U12 structures. In large part this was directly due to the reluctance of rugby playing Schools to release their pupils to the Clubs. Thanks to the sponsorship of Subway every mini rugby Club in the province had the opportunity to play at the Kingspan Stadium during half time of Ulster matches, focusing on the U-12 age group. In addition, the support of Maxol resulted in the running of festivals throughout

The season started in dramatic fashion with the Ulster U18 schools team winning the Inter Provincial title for the first time since 2005. The details of their achievements are recorded elsewhere in this report. Also at the start of the season, Aaron Sexton (Bangor GS) was part of the Ireland squad which was crowned Rugby Europe Under-18 Men’s Sevens champions for the second year in a row at the tournament in Heidelberg, with Aaron scoring one of his six tournament tries in the final. At the start of May 2018, Ryan O’Neill (RS Armagh) was included in the Ireland U18 Men’s Sevens squad which finished second in the Rugby Europe U18 Men’s Sevens Championship in Panevezys, Lithuania. This year there has seen ongoing work done through sub committees established by the Rugby Committee, with input Schools’ Committee members A McGonigle, R Pattison and Brian Leslie. A number of principals, players and teachers in charge of rugby also provided feedback to the review of age-grade rugby undertaken at the end of the season. The challenge ahead for the Schools’ Committee is to consider the proposals and adopt an approach that maintains the integrity and ethos of the Schools’ game, which has been the heartbeat of the School rugby community for decades. The submission of Eteamsheets was an area which required improvement. The IRFU utilise the information which these contain, so it is vitally important that the Schools Committee work with the Schools to increase compliance. Finally, the Schools Committee wish to record its thanks to Chris Webster, Barry Willis, Lesley McGaughey, Jill McCullough, Paul Whitten and other staff at the Ulster Branch who worked with our Schools on a weekly basis to ensure the smooth running of School’s rugby. YOUTH RUGBY Youth Rugby oversees the development of players from Mini-Rugby through to adult rugby. The framework for developing young players with meaningful, challenging competitive games is the League and Cup Competitions. Under the chairmanship of Paul Hart, the Youth Committee, composed of Youth representatives from all Clubs fielding Youth teams, continued to grow the game and hopefully supply players to the adult game. Information such as law changes, safety updates and general rugby information was shared with the Clubs at the Monthly Youth Committee meetings, which were also the forums for Clubs to feed back to the Ulster Branch. The Youth Competition Committee organised over four hundred Youth League matches and more than a hundred Cup games, plus League and Cup Competitions for Girls. This was the second season of Regional Leagues, but it became apparent early on that the U18 League was having difficulties. A Working Party looked at the issue and formulated a new structure, based on a majority of teams having at least sixteen regular games. It was recommended to the Youth Committee, but was put on hold pending the report from Inside Track on the Age Grade Reviews. The Girls played in both U15 and U18 Leagues, run by the Youth Committee for the second season. Numbers were and remain an issue for Girls rugby and despite the inclusion of a reduced numbers regulation, the leagues struggled.

IRFU ULSTER BRANCH ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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