winchester
FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/RUGBYCLUBMAG
season. Minis numbers remain high and
we held two festivals through the year for
which we received heartfelt thanks from
many other clubs for well run and attended
events.”
The Off-Season
“Pitch maintenance is always a priority so
as soon as the rugby finished we were reseeding and praying for rain! As I said before
the Clubhouse is booked out for a number of
events to the general public, but we are also
aiming to support the Rugby Force events
at the end of June 27/28th where a team of
volunteers will clean/tidy and re-paint the
club environs so that it is fit for purpose at
the start of the season.
We will have a Family day in August to kick
off the season, and to generate a bit of money,
plus bring together all the different areas of
the club on one day. We also hope to arrange
a club photo that day, capturing as many
representatives of all teams as possible.”
Community
“We are absolutely a community club. We
employ a Rugby Development Officer who
takes the Rugby message out to local schools
and also provides coaching support for the
U6’s on a Sunday morning. These are the
places where rugby is introduced to novices
(both players and parents) and can form a
lasting impression - we feel it is important
to get that bit right, then Rugby has the
best chance of becoming a natural sporting
choice for the wider community.
We also
value our playing and supporting codes of
ethics which we feel show Rugby as a real
contributor to community spirit, fair play
and enjoyment for all - it really is not all
about the winning.”
Youth
“Youth Rugby is highly important - 2/3rds of
our club is Minis and Juniors and the current
success of our First team is down to a group
of individuals who have come through the
ranks over many years and developed into
the players they are today. It is fair to say we
would not be able to attract so many Senior
players if we did not provide quality youth
rugby too.
Over the years we have had some England
players of various age groups, and one
Scottish one (Budge Poutney). Notably Andy
Fields our current First team coach played
for U18, U20 and U21 England teams as a
hooker, more recently we had Rhodri Adams
play for England Counties team (2014). Most
encouraging perhaps for us is the emergence
of several talented colts players who have
stepped up to the First team this year whilst
still aged only 18 (Alex Tickle and Henry
Boden).”
Challenges
“We are working hard to gain promotion
to London 1 which in itself brings many
challenges both financially and for club
management in general. We will start to
come up against paid players (we don’t pay),
well sponsored teams with coaching links
to premiership sides. We have to be able
to match some of those things and making
the connections and support networks
which will ensure player development and
retention.
Beyond the First team we have a need to
develop our club facilities so that we can
safely host youths (including girls), Womens
and Senior rugby teams in one location. One
big issue is the survival of many of the teams
in Hampshire, which whilst we are currently
su ccessful and can field 4 senior teams and
several youth teams (per age group) many
other sides cannot. Finding opposition is a
real issue and we don’t see the RFU plans for
the future of grass-roots rugby addressing
this.”
Ambitions
“Our ambitions for the future include
promotion to London 1 for our first team,
developing women’s rugby as a natural
partner to Mens throughout the club,
securing a financial baseline which runs
the club so that sponsorship can be used
to develop new projects and continuing to
provide a solid community based club that
attracts over 1000 members each year.”
www.winchester54 Issue 55
rugby.com - Twitter : @winchesterRFC