Downs Rugby Round Up June 2014

Transcription

1 Downs Rugby Round Up June 2014 Welcome to the June edition of the Downs Rugby Round Up. Mid-way through the Rugby season and plenty happening right across the Downs, with locals representing QLD Country overseas, Premier Grade Rugby visiting the Downs and QRU running plenty of school based Rugby activities. Awards Night Save the Date for the Downs Rugby Awards Night, August 16 th at the Cathedral Centre, Neil St Toowoomba. Celebrating 50 years of the Risdon Cup, the night will feature the announcement of the Risdon Cup Team of the Half Century, the Ken Long Award, Player of the Year award among various other awards and presentations throughout the night. More details to come shortly. Thankyou s To Heritage Bank for Donating our new printer. To CRT Rural Supplies Dalby for donating Bag Tags for our State Champs teams. DOWNS RUGBY EVENTS DATE EVENT VENUE CONTACT 4 th 6 th July QJRU State The Southport School Downs Office Championships 5 th July Premier Grade Rugby Brothers V Norths Basset Park, Roma Downs Office th August Downs Rugby Awards Night 16 th September 19 th 28 th September Wagners Senior Grand Finals Downs Rugby Senior Rep NZ Tour The Cathedral Centre, Toowoomba Downs Office The Toowoomba Sports Ground Downs Office New Zealand South Island Downs Office To promote your club events, please your dates to mitchell.simpson@downsrugby.com.au Downs Rugby is proudly sponsored by June 2014 Page 1

2 REPRESENTATIVE NEWS QJRU State Championships This weekend the 4 th 6 th July Downs Rugby will be sending 4 representative sides to The Southport School on the Gold Coast for the QJRU State Championships. Our Under 12s, 13s, 14s and 16s will all be participating in the carnival with players and staff alike, eager to take on the rest of the state. Stay tuned to our Website, Facebook and Instagram for updates throughout the Championships. Seniors: Downs Rugby players once again shined at the Graincorp Country Championships with five players, Sonny Power, Terry Harvey, Paul Maguire, Matt Howse and Sam Hogarth, being selected in the Queensland Country squad. SEQ coach Rob Johnson said our boys performed well in a team that had never played together and was a great learning experience for the players new to the SEQ team. This year the QLD Country team is touring New Zealand, which will inspire future players on the Downs to participate in representative programs. The 2014 New Zealand tour will be the highlight of the 2014 Downs Rugby Senior Representative program, the first in 27 years. Thirty-one players and seven support staff head off on Friday September 19 th for a nine day tour of the South Island. The team will play three games against representative teams from Dunedin, Oamaru and Queenstown. In early July information about a supporter s tour will be released through your local club. Tour details are still being finalised, but you can register your interest by contacting Kate at the Downs Office. To assist with the reducing the financial burden on players, each player has to sign a $500 jacket sponsor. Sponsors names will be proudly displayed on the back of a player s jacket during the team s tour of New Zealand. It is also expected players will wear the jacket during the colder months in our local region. Please contact Kate at the Downs Rugby Office if you would like to sponsor a player s jacket. Touring players will also be selling raffle tickets at your local games, so keep an eye out for them. Under 19: After strong performances at the Graincorp Country Championships held in Rockhampton four Darling Downs boys were selected for QLD Country including Jamie Deshon (ST George), Matt Burke (St George), Will Gilbert (Goondiwindi) and Stewy Milne (Dalby) with Luke Willet (Bears) being named as a shadow. The Under 19s will be brought together later in the year for a training camp before they finalise the side for a carnival in Adelaide next February. The large contingent of Downs players selected for QLD Country is a credit to the coaching staff with Rob Johnston (Seniors) and Mike Dillon (U19) running an excellent high level representative program for our region. June 2014 Page 2

3 2014 WAGNERS SENIOR COMPETITION NEWS Roma to host Premier Grade Rugby This weekend, the Roma Echidna s are playing host to visiting Premier Grade rugby sides Brothers and Norths. The game promises to be full of running rugby with Brothers are currently sitting in 4 th spot on the Premier rugby ladder. The game will be held at Bassett Park at 3.30pm. Roma are hosting the USQ Saints, A Grade at 1.45pm is also Roma s sponsor s day so there will be a large turnout and promises to be an exciting day. spectacle that is Premier Rugby. There is a pre game rugby lunch with Wallaby legends Tony Shaw, Paul Maclean, Glen Panaho and Buddha Handy. Tickets cost $100 with a quality sit down meal and drinks. The members bar will be open overlooking the ground allowing spectators a full view of the games. A band and bar will operate after the game. There will also be a Rookies2Reds session running on the day prior to the main game for the kids. Roma will be the place to be this weekend to witness the Wagners Risdon Cup Snapshot At the half way mark, the Risdon Cup competition ladder is an interesting read. While Dalby are on top, the Wheatmen s for and against figures do not read as well as Goondiwindi, number two on the ladder, who have played fewer games. This weekend will sort the men out from the boys as these two teams clash at Goondiwindi. It will be the game of the round in what should be a large crowd as Emu s host their annual Ladies Day. The dark horse and the black sheep of competition this year are Rangers and St George. These two teams have nothing to lose in comparison to the top two. It has been a long time since the Frillies have experienced a season like this one and are probably the team supporters would most likely want to see in the finals. Rangers stats do not reflect their prowess; they have experienced losses when numerous key players aren t available. It is possible this is the team who will give Dalby and Goondiwindi a run for their money. The Player of Year is a closely guarded secret here in the office. The top five players would surprise many but is also reflective of the benefit of the high performance camps which have been introduced into the representative program. At this stage the trophy is anybody s with very few points separating the top ten. Last year s countdown went right down to the final round, and we could see another tight finish for the Player of the Year. Stay tuned to our website and Facebook for more previews and competition news. June 2014 Page 3

4 DARLING DOWNS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER JAMES O KEEFE NATIONAL RUGBY WEEK National Rugby Week is an Australian Rugby Union run initiative, which is being rolled out amongst schools within the whole of Australia. All schools have to do is sign up, they received a free start up kit including 2 rugby balls, 10 marker cones & 1 whistle which will help the school getting involved in 40minutes of Tag/Contact rugby games/skills in a National Rugby Week. National Rugby Week is a new way girls and boys can try the new, fun, safe and fast paced game of non-contact 7 s, and learn about the Rugby Valued of integrity, respect, teamwork, discipline and passion through a range of innovative learning experiences on the field. National Rugby Week will be run the week before the Bledisloe Cup, contested between Australia and New Zealand. If you think your school should be included in this great program, then please visit the link below and get your child s teacher to sign the school up! To register and find out more information please visit ST. GEORGE ROOKIES TO REDS Another group of clinics are just starting around the Toowoomba area. St. George Rookies to Reds runs for a total of 5 weeks, each participant receives their own pack which includes plenty of great gear plus 4 tickets to a reds game of your choice. These are the current centres that are active, - Gatton State School (Mondays) - St Thomas More s Primary (Tuesdays) - Christian Outreach College (Wednesdays) - Toowoomba Christian College (Thursdays) - Goondiwindi Rugby Club (18 th & 19 th July) To register please visit WELCOMES AND FAREWELL S Downs Rugby Welcomes Kate Reardon to the Management Team as a replacement for Geoff Kelk who has joined a local legal firm. We thank Geoff for his efforts during his time with us and wish him well in his new employment. Kate will be known to many of you for her great work as manager of the senior representative side. We look forward to Kate s input in these coming months. June 2014 Page 4

5 2014 DOWNS RUGBY OFFICE BEARERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS Board Directors: Senior Committee: Teenage Committee: Junior Committee: High Performance Rugby Committee: Match Officials Committee Judicial Committee LIFE MEMBERS: Mike Horan (Chair), Dick Webster, Mark Brownlie, Rod Hohn, Scott Mead and Danielle Bermingham, Barry O Sullivan. Brock Johnston (Chair), Doug McNicholl, Mick Gall, Dom O Connor and Joel Rickuss. Malcolm Hosking (Chair), Mike Dillon, Dwyane McLaren, Mike Gregory and Phil Neidler. Tadhg Sheehan(Chair), David Wigan, Nathan Bradley, Sean Rice and Matt Reen. Marty Leggat (Chair), Rob Johnston, John Gordon, Grant Gleeson and Cameron Donaldson. Scott Lindblom (Chair), Jabour Hanna, Peter Buchanan and Kevin Doggett Dave Power (Chair), Michael Beeston and Matt Howard Don Trenerry, Bill Flamsteed, Geoff Makim, David Thompson, Harry Hilder, Tess Hilder, Denis Hanrahan, Desley Hanrahan, Michael Doherty, John Handley, Gary Bloustien. Downs are proudly sponsored by: Downs Rugby Representative program proudly sponsored by; June 2014 Page 5

6 OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS:- Unit 11, Anzac Central, 189 Anzac Avenue, Toowoomba Q 4350 P: (07) W: POSTAL ADDRESS:- PO Box 1070, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350 OUR TEAM Chris Bell General Manager M: E: Chris.Bell@downsrugby.com.au Downs Rugby Ltd MITCHELL SIMPSON Club Development Officer M: E: KATE REARDON Club Development Officer M: E: kate.reardon@downsrugby.com.au JAMES O KEEFE Queensland Rugby Development Officer M: E: James.OKeefe@qru.com.au June 2014 Page 6