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Squad Policy - Spring 2005
Folks, this is a quick note to confirm Kevan’s and my plans for the team and to give arrangements for this coming weekend (February 23rd).
For those of you that were unable to attend last weekend, let me explain the situation that we find ourselves in at the moment:-
At this time we have a total of 33 boys who have, or are in the process of registering to play rugby for Northwich RUFC. This is a fantastic growth in interest in the sport and whilst it is very exciting to see so much enthusiasm, it brings with it some organisational problems.
Clearly we can no longer honour the position that we originally held, which was that if you turned up you would get to play at least part of a game. We could now play a completely different 15 in the second half and still not have everyone get a game!!
So our intention is to name a squad for the game and we will then pick a starting team from the squad and we will try and get some game time for everyone in the squad. Although I hope you will bear with us if on occasion we do not manage to use the whole bench. Whilst winning games is not our prime aim, a successful team is something we all want and a regular lack of success in games will not do the teams morale much good.
The squad will be around 20 names and our intention is to get it onto the Web site and out in email form by Thursday night latest. If you have no access to the Internet then please let us know and we will arrange to text or call you, however, if we can use email it is by far the easiest method for us to use and hence less likely that we will miss someone out by accident.
In future, please could we ask that if you know that you are not going to be available to play one week that you let Kevan and I know as soon as possible. This will allow us to pick a squad from the players available and may give someone a game who would otherwise be training.
Having covered the playing squad, what of the others?
Well, our intention is to get all our boys up to a level where all of them are competing for places in the squad and to do that we need to have some structured development. Most of our development squad are new to the game and hence have much to learn. To do this we are forming a development squad, initially this will be lead by Will Thompson (thanks Will for stepping in) and he will be tasked with getting that squad up to speed with the basics of passing, catching and contact skills. Kevan and I will be keeping in close touch with Will to monitor the progress of the development squad and we will be actively seeking opportunities to give the boys a chance to prove themselves in the game day squad. Equally, we will be watching the game day squad for signs of complacency and some who may feel that they are a natural shoe in for the squad may find themselves having to prove their case from the development squad.
If our squad continues to grow as it has so far then we will be looking to start a regular second team with its own set of fixtures etc. However, we probably need in the region of 40 boys regularly attending and some more coaching resources before we could really support such a move.
In the meantime we recognise the need to get some game time for our development guys and to that end I have spoken to Kevin Jones the U12’s coach, who is willing to try and give some of our guys some game time with his squad. Clearly there is an issue here that the U12’s cannot be seen to try to gain unfair advantage in their games by fielding over age players, so we will need to treat this carefully. Unfortunately this will probably mean that our more physically developed boys will not be able to play in this group as they would stand out as being over age. However, the rest should be able to hone their skills in this environment and then be stating a case for inclusion in the match day squad.
If we can get the sufficient numbers and we can get the development squad to a reasonable standard then I will look to find some ad-hoc games against suitable opposition at U13 level before the end of the season.
Last Sunday was the first attempt at using our new plan and may I congratulate all of the boys on an excellent training session. Following what must have been our worst performance of any season the previous week against Wilmslow, they all responded well, both to a bit of a moan but also to the request for a more focussed effort on their behalf. There was some excellent tackling, running and all round effort put in. I look forward to seeing this work bear fruit on the pitch this week. I was especially pleased to see some encouraging signs in the development squad and I hope that Kevan and I soon have a real task on our hands to pick our match squad.
The match squad will be primarily coached by Kevan and myself, (though we are always looking for help from parents for both squads any offers will be appreciated). The emphasis with this squad will be on skill and team development. On a Sunday we will take 18 – 20 boys to the matches, this is a realistic number of starters and substitutes and is in line with RFU recommendations. We will also try and ensure that lifts are available for away matches so that parents do not have to travel if they do not want to. Any parent wishing to volunteer to help co-ordinate lifts would be greatly appreciated.
We trust that this approach will allow us to give more focussed coaching at the required levels, will maintain the team spirit by winning more games or at least ensuring that we are fully competitive and minimise the number of boys standing around on the touchlines on a Sunday getting frustrated at not playing.
Thanks for your understanding and to a great season
Ken Houghton
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