Berkshire RFU Philosophy
At county level, the role of Berkshire County RFU is to develop a group of talented players to the benefit of their clubs and schools. It is also a chance for talented players to work with a group of different players probably of a higher standard and benefit from the experience of working with a new set of coaches.
At U13s to U15s level it is part of the pathway to U16s and the chance of representative rugby – for the South West and hopefully onwards.
The U14s and U15s are developmental squads and the matches we play are there to see the boys in a match situation. It is imperative that we carry forward a large squad of c30-35 players to allow for the fact that players develop at different times at this age, injuries, unavailability, etc. Berkshire have taken the stance that all boys in the county pool receive skills training (from the SoR programme) and all also receive match preparation - including those players designated as being in the SoR group or are with London Irish Academy (or another academy). This policy hopefully ensures that, by the time we get to U16s, the squad is a cohesive unit and that they will therefore provide the best platform to showcase the players and hopefully give outstanding players the best opportunity to be selected at the higher representative levels.
The Berkshire RFU strategy is at variance with the RFU’s standard strategy because we believe that this is the best for all of the players and will perform best holistically for rugby in Berkshire. The RFU encourages the SoR players to be coached completely separately and then only come together for a few sessions with the rest of the squad for match preparation in advance of one U14s county game and two U15s county games which they fund.
Berkshire RFU believes that the modifications we have made to the RFU’s template detailed above, is of more benefit to the players, schools and clubs. We understand that players want to represent their county, so we arrange three or more matches at each age group.
With a large squad, it means that not all players play every game - but it also means that players on the bench will get a game in that particular fixture. There is no such thing as being dropped from one game to another. If a player has played in a game and is not selected for the next, it could mean that he showed enough to the coaches in that previous outing and the coaches want to look at someone else. That player is therefore in a positive position - even though everyone wants to play every minute of every game.
In addition, most players want to win every game but sometimes the good of the whole squad has to come into play and wholesale changes from the bench might disrupt a team. However, this is good experience of playing with loads of different players – it will certainly be like that at higher levels. Another aspect of preparing players for the higher levels is to try and get them to think for themselves once they are on the pitch. Therefore the county coaches will tend to leave the players to get on with it – find their leaders, do their own pep talks etc. At this level we have to leave behind the days of Tag rugby with coaches on the pitch organising defensive lines etc. or coaches screaming down the touchline.
Lastly, we want to create a partnership between all stakeholders, if you have any questions or need to get clarification on any points, feedback etc., please speak to the county coaches, they should all be approachable.
We have already published the age group programmes for 2010/11 for U13s – U16s so that clubs and schools are aware of our representative county programme, Schools of Rugby and when County league club matches will take place.
Steve Cullen
Youth Chairman
Berkshire RFU
21 April 2010
