DARLING DOWNS RUGBY DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

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1 DARLING DOWNS RUGBY DEVELOPMENT UPDATE Welcome to the Darling Downs Rugby Development Update. This update is to keep the local rugby community aware of development happenings and recent news reports. This issue includes Schools Rugby Roundup o Try Sevens Week Competitions - Q7 s Schools U18 Sevens Championships KEY DATES Rookies2Reds Program (5-10yrs) Wednesdays - Our Lady of Good Counsel (Gatton) Thursdays Gold Park (Toowoomba) St George Queensland Reds Visit 3 rd Nov East State School Fete Waikato Chiefs Visit 10 th Nov - Craig John Ritter Oval, Dalby. ARU Pathway to Gold trial 28 th Oct Ballymore - Q7 s Schools U12 Sevens Championships - National Schools Girls Rugby Sevens o National 16 s Championships o Volvo QRFSU 12 Years State Championships Womens Sevens Pathway to Gold trial

2 SCHOOLS PARTICIPATION To help celebrate the Gold Coast - Fever Pitch, Queensland Rugby released a week long school participation program known as Try Sevens Week. Schools were asked to participate in some form of Sevens Rugby activities from 8 th October 12 th October. Registered Schools received equipment to run the programs as well as a Sevens goodie-bag for each participant. Queensland Rugby announced that over students participated in the program, which is great support for the Olympics newest sport. Q7 S SCHOOLS U18 SEVENS CHAMPIONSHIPS Earlier in the year Queensland schools registered to compete in Queensland Rugby s Q7 s U18 Championships. Schools needed qualify through a regional Q7 s championships to progress to the state finals. The Darling Downs Q7 s qualifier was held at Downlands College in late Term 3. From this qualifier Pittsworth SHS and Toowoomba SHS (Mt Lofty) qualified for the state final after both schools made the Darling Downs final. Pittsworth prevailed after winning on a count back after scores were tied after the final whistle After their success at the regional qualifier, Pittsworth SHS and Mt Lofty travelled down to The South Port School on the Gold Coast to compete in the Q7 s Schools U18 Sevens Championships. Both schools unfortunately progress past the pool stages but showed a lot of heart against rugby heavyweights which included Nudgee College, Brisbane State High, The Southport School and National Champions Keebra Park SHS. Keebra Park SHS went on to win the Q7 s Schools U18 Championships defeating St Brendans from Yeppoon in the final. They also claimed their 3 rd National Schools Sevens Championship by defeating St Gregorys College from Sydney in the National Schools final. A special thank you must go school rugby coordinators David Southey (Pittsworth SHS) and Russel Jackson (Mt Lofty) for training both squads and organizing the boys to compete at the State finals.

3 Q7 S SCHOOLS U12 SEVENS CHAMPIONSHIPS Continuing with our Try Sevens Week competitions, on Wednesday of Try Sevens week saw Ballymore Stadium host the Q7 s Schools U12 Sevens Championships. Toowoomba Grammar School represented the Darling Downs at the competition which saw 16 teams from across the State compete in a cross field sevens competition. Also in attendance were ARU High Performance Development coaches to complete some development testing on all the championships participants. Toowoomba Grammar School competed hard against the State s best U12 but in the end it was Kruger State School who took out the Championship, defeating Richlands State School NATIONAL SCHOOLS GIRLS RUGBY SEVENS CHAMPIONSHIPS On the Saturday morning of the Gold Coast Sevens Fever Pitch, our best National School Girl Rugby Sevens players were representing their States in National School Girl Rugby Sevens Championships which was held at The Southport School. The Darling Downs was well represented with local students Georgina Friedrichs and Ashleigh Kearney in the Queensland Red squad and Maddison McCarthy, Chloe Crothers and Sophie Fitzgerald in the Queensland White squad. The Queensland squads competed against teams from New South Wales, ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. Queensland Red went through the pool stages unbeaten and played against the Queensland White team to decide who plays New South Wales Blue in the final after they deposed of Western Australia Queensland White gave it everything they had but in the end Queensland Red had enough to get the win defeating their sister team The final was played at Skilled Stadium, Gold Coast at the Gold Coast Sevens Fever Pitch. The Queensland Red team boyd by a home ground advantage ran out winners with two second half tries to Toowoomba local Georgina Friedrichs to be crowned National Champions (see right)

4 NATIONAL 16 S CHAMPIONSHIPS Queensland Red have won consecutive Under 16 National Championship titles following a win over New South Wales Schools in the Division One final at St. Ignatius College, Riverview earlier this month. A high-scoring, hard-fought affair saw eight tries in total scored throughout the contest, with a single penalty goal to Toowoomba s own Mack Mason the only thing separating the sides. The win secures the Rod Macqueen Shield for Queensland for another year, in what was one of a number of exciting contests on the final day of the tournament. Darling Downs Representatives at the Championships QLD Red: Mack Mason, Josh Robertson, Liam Jurd and Jason Gilmore (Head Coach) QLD White: Harry Wathen, Darcy Maroske, James McColl, Mitchell O Hara, Matthew Chong-nee VOLVO QRFSU 12 YEARS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS The Darling Downs 12 years school representative squad travelled to Padua College at the end of September to compete in the Volvo QRFSU 12 Years State Championships. After a successful Darling Downs selection process that saw over 160 participants trial at Zone and then selected members trial at the regional trials, Darling Downs was confident leading into the State Championships. After a tough two days, the Darling Downs 12 years squad finished and impressive 4 th, with wins against the Sunshine Coast (14-12) and Capricornia (41-0). However, losses to Met East (7-17) and Met North (7-19) meant that they missed out on claiming the State title for this year. Thank you to David Wigan and Dan Simmonds for coaching and managing the squad.

5 WOMENS SEVENS PATHWAY TO GOLD TRIAL Rugby Sevens is recognised as an Olympic sport and will make its debut at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. The Australian Rugby Union are excited to be searching for Australia's next Women s Sevens squad to take all the way to a gold medal. Attending a Pathway to Gold trial is the first step in the process of identifying athletes who display the potential to represent Australia in the Women's Sevens team at the 2016 Olympic Games. It s open for girls aged 16-30, and they don t necessarily have to have a background in Rugby. We have girls currently in the squad who came from Oztag, Touch Football and Rugby league. The Brisbane trials are on Sunday 28 th October. Whatever your sport, come and try out for this fast-paced, challenging game! For more details and to register, check out Contacts If anyone has any questions on the information above or any other development related queries, please do not hesitate to contact me on the details below. Yours in Rugby Development, Tom Bower Darling Downs Development Officer Queensland Rugby P: E: tom.bower@qru.com.au