The game of rugby is flourishing in parts of Australia when you look at crowds gathering at Shute Shield grand finals.
However the further away from the Heartland rugby that are Brisbane and Sydney the fainter the heartbeat gets.
But rugby is passion and passionate people are the heart and soul of our sport.
There is a place called Cloncurry, if you haven’t heard of it don’t worry – closest place that you would’ve heard of to it is Mt Isa.
This area is as tough as it is remote and the dominant winter sport here in outback Queensland is rugby league.
However, there is a small group of passionate rugby people trying to revive our great game in the heartland of rugby league.
It’s hard to do this when the local competition will not give you a home game. How do you get the townsfolk to realise you actually exist within their town borders if you can’t play it in front of them?
This was the problem faced by Cloncurry Rugby Club, the answer was to host an annual tens competition in the preseason to ignite the rugby spirit Within the town.
Last year was the Club’s inaugural tens competition. They drew a single nomination from their own team.
But being rugby people, one failure did not dissuade them – it only made they desire greater.
This year Cloncurry rugby club on the third of March is doing it again. They are hosting a tens tournament. It was looking like going the same way as last year but only just today have received four nominations.
If it wasn’t for volunteers and passionate rugby tragics, the sport would be dying.
I see and hear people complain every day about the state of our sport.
And it’s stories like this – of people doing something and not complaining, of taking action not voicing opinions. This gives me hope that our great sport will once again dominate the headlines in this country.
If you’re reading this and you’ve got this far, you can be part of the solution. Volunteer to turn some sausages at your local rugby club.
Volunteer if you have the time to manage your team, to help set up the fields on Saturday. It’s the passion for grassroots rugby community which is going to reignite the pulse of our great game of rugby across this land again.
Hey and if you can scrape together a team to travel to Cloncurry for the third of March that would be awesome!
Exile In Oz
Roar Rookie
Go the Keas! Hopefully the Curry can get some more support. I'd love to see them get up over the Warrigals and the Euros
Andrew Joseph
Roar Rookie
Champion! supportgrr. Never watched a game of tens. Be sure you post an article covering the match. Maybe even a bit of youtube.
Brian
Roar Rookie
Great work by the local community and the volunteers. This type of grassroots support is the backbone that all sports required to keep the life blood going. Lets hope they get a few more nominations before the 3rd of March and onwards and upwards for next year and beyond.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Great effort and thanks very much. I suspect that if professional rugby in Australia does not pick up then grass roots rugby will make a strong come back. There are already signs that Shute Sheild in Sydney is attracting more supporters.
.
Guest
Grew up in the Curry district but played my rugby in Sydney ,Brisbane and Townsville and only found out about Curry Rugby at a family wedding this year I was amazed and thrilled.
Armchair Sportsfan
Roar Rookie
Great Stuff. I played Rugby in the Mt Isa comp nearly 20 years ago. During that time, Cloncurry was non existant, having gone defunct a couple of years prior. The club I joined was about to disappear as well, but luckily a few of the new Mount Isa Mines Graduates (myself included) were rugby people which gave a club a bit of a needed boost...and the mighty Keas went on to win a streak of premierships in the following years. Now its Curry's turn to do the same....!
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Great news! Hopefully more teams will put this on their tour itinerary and give the town a boost to boot. Well played.
Hoy
Roar Guru
Great story for the 'Curry. Goodness knows how they keep their club going up there, but I hope the tourney is a great success. I am glad the facebook page of SupportGrassRootsRugby has played a part in getting more teams. The more people support their local clubs, the better our grass roots will be, the better our game in Aus will be. Great effort promoting the game, and good luck to all those heading to the 'Curry, a bit further North than Gods country of central QLD.
Carlin
Roar Rookie
Sounds really positive. Good on Cloncurry and you for persevering and wanting to bring rugby to the town. A modified version such as 10s is a smart idea as it is a good start for getting people to participate. Your second to last paragraph is bang on. We need people to volunteer to ensure rugby (and all sport for that matter) continue especially at junior and grassroots level. I am from New Zealand and work in secondary school sport. At the school I work at which has close to 200 staff I am the only staff member actively involved in rugby. This is a school in Auckland as well. People do not realise without the behind the scenes help, people especially young children miss out on playing sport. Keep up the good work.
Phil
Guest
Well done.It's people like you and your club which give hope to us all.I live in Thailand where,as you would imagine,rugby is a very minor sport,but the Bangkok 10's has turned into a huge successful tournament.It's success has also been because of dedicated people like yourself making it happen.
Supportgrassrootsrugby
Roar Rookie
Yesterday I posted this story on my FB page and within 6 hours Cloncurry Rugby had a further 6 nominations for both men's and women's teams a total so far of 9 teams. Hoping this article will help double these numbers. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2216103088653400&id=1919760698287642
Steve
Guest
It's flourishing in plenty of areas. I live in a town of 5,000 on the NSW North Coast, we should have 7-8 junior teams this season
Sul
Guest
Well done Cloncurry I salute you. I have been in that area a number of times and I know what you must be up against, but if the passion there anything is possible. "Keep the Faith"
Bobby
Guest
How good is that. Some passionate people made it happen and in one of the hottest parts of Australia. And I reckon the local field wouldn't have the same surface as Suncorp or ANZ Congratulations