Playing against far bigger kids and the real fear of an associated injury is the biggest reason why boys give up the game, argues Patrick McKendry.
Preventing children from playing 15-a-side rugby until they reach high school is an idea from New Zealand Rugby that will polarise opinion throughout the country and potentially even within the organisation itself.
If nothing else, making those 12- and 13-year-old children in their final year of junior club rugby play 13-aside on a slightly narrower field (and those a year younger play 10-aside on half a field) will reinforce the concept that kids of those ages are not the finished product in terms of rugby development.
In some cases, given the expectation from parents - and sometimes the kids themselves - even this simple idea will be hard to accept.
Will playing smaller-sided games help with engagement and therefore recruitment and retention? According to NZ Rugby’s research, yes.
Smaller-sided games help more players touch the ball more often, which is more enjoyable. As a result, confidence increases, and hopefully development across a wide range of skills too.
The kids are therefore more likely to return next year, which is the ultimate goal (NZ Rugby’s anyway, an important distinction which I will get to).
The ages targeted are those of intermediate school kids because research shows that the highest participation in junior rugby in New Zealand is by 10- and 11-year-olds.
This is the sharp peak of the mountain as far as the graph is concerned and from there it tracks down rather sharply before plateauing.
So it makes sense to target the 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds who may be vulnerable to giving the game away.
Wild size variation
But, from the personal experience of coaching boys’ junior rugby over the last four years or so, a lack of touches of the ball is not the biggest turnoff for children or their parents.
It’s the size differential between players, especially in that final year before secondary school when the physical development of boys varies wildly due to puberty.
For the vast majority of unions, this last year of junior club rugby is effectively an open-weight division.
In the case of the competition I helped coach in last year, the limit was 75kg. But kids over that weight could still participate while wearing different coloured socks.
No more than four “over-weight” players could be on the field at the same time (there are other, more minor restrictions such as not being able to receive the ball from a penalty tap), but some teams had a reserves bench full of big boys and rotated them.
It meant fatigue wasn’t as much of a factor as it could have been for those playing kids far smaller and perhaps fitter than them.
My son’s team had no player over the weight limit. Their average weight was 49kg.
In one match our boys (and one girl) played against a team which included a boy of 103kg, and the difference in size, weight and strength was concerning. He was the biggest of several of similar proportions in his team.
A few weeks later I witnessed that differential lead to a concussion injury when a halfback in my son’s rival team from the same club was swung around by a boy at least twice his size and landed on his head. He didn't play for the rest of the season.
No easy answer
This is the true turnoff for kids of that age and their parents and there is no easy answer for NZ Rugby or anyone else for that matter.
Those bigger boys have nowhere else to play. There generally aren’t enough of them to form a separate team, let alone a competition for them to play in, and so they are stuck – as are the smaller kids having to play against them.
Ironically, the first year of high school has a far stricter weight limit – 63kg in most places. Any boy significantly heavier than this is invited to play a year above which makes for a more even and therefore enjoyable game-day experience for everyone.
For juniors, it is both the blessing and the curse of rugby. It is famously a game for all shapes and sizes but it’s easy to lose interest when you’re battling (and losing to) giants every week.
My team had many brave and skilful players with good game sense but all that counted for little against highly physically developed kids who could carry the ball 50m up the field almost at will.
As mentioned, participation is the ultimate goal for NZ Rugby, with skills development just behind it.
But, in my experience, not every junior club team follows this mantra.
Last year, I heard that an Auckland club created a stir among the parents of some of its junior players entering their final season by holding trials and selecting a squad it deemed as its most talented, leaving the other kids in limbo.
Adding insult to injury was the fact that this team tours Australia every season, for which those junior players, who suddenly found themselves surplus to requirements, had fundraised for several years prior.
The goal of the team, laid down by the coaches of these 12- and 13-year-olds, was to win every game – ideally without conceding a try.
Such attitudes probably won’t surprise too many parents of those connected to junior sport but it’s an indication of what NZ Rugby is up against.
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