MINUTES OF THE MINIS FORUM/FIXTURE MEETING 11 th January 2016

Transcription

1 MINUTES OF THE MINIS FORUM/FIXTURE MEETING 11 th January 2016 Chairman: Mr Kevin Blakiston (KB) Venue: Haywards Heath RFC Meeting commenced at 8.10pm Agenda Item 1: Welcome and thanks to Haywards Heath KB thanked Haywards Heath for kindly volunteering to host the Minis Forum meeting. It was confirmed that the Juniors fixture meeting due to be held on the 13 th January at Hove, in conjunction with the Youth Forum meeting, had been postponed. This was to allow for some members of the Youth Executive to attend a meeting at Twickenham regarding the proposed changes to the RFU Structured Season and Youth Development. The Youth Exec would then be meeting and clubs would be advised in due course about the rescheduled date. Apologies These had been received from: Kevin Gollup Jersey Ian Thurloway Crawley Katie Gray Shoreham Steve Swain Uckfield Simon Lashly Burgess Hill Clubs Represented at the meeting Hastings and Bexhill, Bognor, Brighton, Chichester, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Lewes, Pulborough, Worthing, Crawley, Crowborough, Eastbourne, East Grinstead, Heathfield, Hove, Midhurst and Hellingly. Agenda Item 2: Minutes of the 2015 Mini Forum The minutes are available on the website. No one had any issues they wished to raise in respect of these minutes and they are approved as an accurate record of the 2015 meeting.

2 Agenda Item 3: Refereeing Courses Phil Bowers will arrange any Minis refereeing courses upon request. There needs to be around 8-12 people attending to make it viable. There is a refereeing course scheduled on the 20 th January at Worthing. It was announced that Sussex will be paying, if necessary, for independent referees for the Minis Festival finals. Anyone running a festival ought to think about approaching local colleges who may have students wishing to gain experience and enhance their core skills to help these youngsters progress. Agenda Item 4: 2016 Sussex Festival, Allocation of Teams The groupings are based on the relative positions of the then U11s (now U12s) at the 2014/15 regional finals. Two teams are seeded to each Regional Festival. These are as Pulborough o Pulborough, Bognor, Chichester, Crawley, Midhurst, Horsham o Horsham, Guernsey, Haywards Heath, [Horley], Hove, Uckfield o Uckfield, Crowborough, East Grinstead, Heathfield, Hellingly, Jersey, Brighton o Brighton, Burgess Hill, Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes, Seaford There may be space in some age groups for clubs who may wish to enter a third team. Please contact KB if you are interested. Question: Is there any official limits on the numbers of players in an age group. KB informed the meeting that there are no official limits just notional ones, as suggested on the website. Agenda Item /17 Festival Nominations The dates proposed are as follows: Regional Finals on 5 th March 2017 Finals on 26 th March 2017 Reserve date of 23 rd April 2017 Easter in 2017 in 16 th April 2017 and with the variation of school holidays within Sussex it has been necessary to bring forward to regional finals as early as practical.

3 Nominations were then sought for four clubs to host the regional events in 2017 and the final itself. Two clubs from the East and two from the West. The regional events will be held at CHICHESTER, HAYWARDS HEATH, CROWBOROUGH and EASTBOURNE. It was suggested that a smaller club could host the final giving such a club the opportunity to host an event where they couldn t normally accommodate a regional final. MIDHURST volunteered. NB There was a caveat regarding the festival in 2016/17 in that the current competition review may result in changes being needed to the festival format. More information would be provided to clubs when it becomes available. Agenda Item 6: Continuum Review Sussex has volunteered to introduce the New Rules of Play (NRoP) at U12 a year earlier than mandated by the RFU. Feedback was sought from clubs on how this was being received. It was questioned about the exact purpose of the NRoP was it for producing better players, better game outcomes and/or retention of players. There was general consensus that the new rules were on balance working well. Comments were received that coaches felt it provided more ball time too for players. There were comments that schools are in some cases playing different rules (15 aside for example) and were using line outs etc. In general, it was felt the U12 NRoP were not that different from U11s. There was then a brief discussion on the proposed U13 NRoP. These were in force in Hampshire and clubs should visit the Hampshire RFU site and the RFU Player Progression Pathway site. In essence, the proposed changes are: No League. Waterfall and/or Festivals were proposed. 13-a-side 6-man scrum (hooking allowed but no pushing) No line-out (Free Pass for a restart) No Kick at Goal (conversation, penalties or drop-goals). Reduced pitch size reduced from full-size. Waterfall competitions were discussed and the potential benefits of teams playing other similarly matched opponents. Any such events played over a number of weeks could have issues regarding postponements.

4 It was questioned as to where are we trying to get in respect of rugby at these age groups and the changes proposed. Some felt that competition does focus on playing to win with examples presented where teams and player inclusion would have been different if it wasn t about the winning. Agenda Item 7: 2017 Meeting The Minis Forum 2017 meeting will be held on Monday 9 th January, again at Haywards Heath as this venue is fairly central for most clubs. 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Agenda Item 8: Schedule of Mini Festivals in 2016/17 The meeting was reminded that all Sussex Festivals must seek approval from Steve Briscoe. Clubs were asked to provide details of their scheduled festival for the 2016/17 season. Those reported were: 02/10 - Hastings (A/B) Closed but anyone welcome to ask to be included. U7-U12 02/10 - East Grinstead, U10 to U12 02/10 Chichester, Closed. 09/10 Eastbourne, U7 and U8 09/10 Haywards Heath, U9/U10 09/10 Crawley, U11/U12 16/10 Brighton U7 to U12 06/11 Crowborough A, U7 to U12 20/11 Chichester/Bognor/Midhurst Festivals series., Open. U7 to U12 12/12 Pulborough U11/U12 05/02 Chichester/Bognor/Midhurst Festival series. Open, U7 to U12 12/03 Haywards Heath (Development) 19/03 Crowborough B festival, U7 thru U12 19/03 Horsham Closed 19/03 Worthing B 02/04 Pulborough U9/U10. 09/04 Lewes. Closed. U7 to U12 23/04 Worthing A. 23/04 Uckfield. [TBC by Uckfield].??/?? H-Cup. Dates not decided yet (often in February) Agenda Item 9: Head Injuries Feedback was asked for after the recent high-profile discussions around head injuries. Head injuries cannot be assessed pitch-side and often symptoms cannot be observed for 30+ minutes. Anyone receiving a head injury should not take part in the match further and in the case of festivals maybe for the remainder of the day.

5 Clubs felt the message was now getting out to clubs and especially parents, who often in the past have encouraged their child to continue playing. Agenda Item 10: AoB Question: Could clubs continue playing into May (as a result of a lot of weather related postponements for example). It was confirmed that this is not possible, though touch and other forms of non-contact rugby are encouraged during the summer months. Question: If a club in a particular age group has only half a team could they enter the festival. Clubs were encouraged in such situations to maybe create a Barbarians team alongside another club with similar low numbers. They would certainly be welcome to enter. Clubs were reminded about the Sussex Youth Forum, which meets three times a year and gives all clubs and their youth sections (Minis, Juniors and Colts) a voice to discuss specific youth related matters. It's an opportunity to feed comments back to the youth executive and to meet up with other similar people from other Sussex clubs. The next meeting (apart from the to be announced re-scheduled Fixture/Forum meeting) will be on the 13 th April at Brighton 8pm. With no further business, the meeting was closed at 9.15pm.