Rugby union vs rugby league: A footy dad's 'little experiment'

Uncontested scrums are where there is no pushing. For juniors that is understandable. Its a nightmare to manage as some clubs have massive depth and other clubs are just getting enough to field a team and some of those kids are not built to be in a scrum. Lineouts : ask a club official.

Small businesses that can afford it, may consider paying the registration fees as a form of sponsorship. I no longer have a business but reckon that I could be a membership sponsor. If that helps families participate then why not. It's an investment in the future.

Hamish donates his salary back. I am unaware what Jones does with his.

When I was playing we purchased our own kit and the rego was minimal - just covering things like insurance.

It's been a very long time since I was a kid. What are these uncontested scrums and lineouts that you speak of?

I would have thought a decent name like Finlay meant Union was the logical choice. If your child is named Jayden, Kayden or Brayden then League it is!

Just wondering which game he prefers?

Still can’t see it- can you advise when is it out of play?

I guess and can only guess it is to help pay for the Premier Rugby first grade team. Clearly it's trickle up, not down, economics at play.

Good article in so far as the facets of junior codes organisation wise and cost-effectivness, I'm unsure what's considered ball in play with league, because when a player is tackled and goes to ground to me the game stops until he gets up and plays the ball.

I understand that there is basic costs for insurance etc and other such levy's, however My boys have played in a few clubs and the standard fee per year is around $500 for senior players and what the author has said for juniors. So my boys played in Qld and I cite an instance where my youngest played a very much shortened season in Covid and still paid $500.00 for the very limited (half) season. Whereas at League the fees are nowhere near this. Actually just after the season where my boy played during covid he went to play League and was paid $100.00 for a win, vastly different to Rugby with only a very small admin fee applied to register him about $100. So I ask where is the incentive for us to encourage our children to play Rugby. It may be OK if you are not worried about money and have some wealth, however that doesn't cater for the masses that generally are the playing rugby and rugby league. Rugby has been the same for years and years and I appreciate in the Amateur days there was stereotype that existed and we did pay more to play Rugby but that era has long gone since Rugby went Pro in the 90s

So what are the clubs doing with all that money? My very small country NSW club charges our senior men the bare minimum of $192 and they get each get shorts, socks and a training shirt thrown in. We have to put a lot of effort into fundraising and sponsorship to cover it but we’re competing against a cashed up local rugby league club and if we charged our players $400 we wouldn’t have a team.

Great article. Really makes me think about switching my son to league. Rugby club on lower north shore. Fees include shorts, training shirt and I think socks (no game jersey). $405 rego: $328.75 (club), $11.00 (SJRU), $40.25 (NSWRU), $25.00 (insurance). However, with early registration discount and active kids voucher, I end up paying $277.56. This was for under 10s. Cricket worse at $316.00 not including game whites (only training shirt, shorts and a cap).

There is a massive misunderstanding of what RA controls and what it doesn’t. They are a mess of an organization but also seem to take the blame for a lot of the terrible things the states do. Knowing the breakdown of where money goes from each junior participant, won’t get into it because it would take an article to explain, but can basically guarantee it’s the state union and his club that is gouging the vast majority of that large fee.

I caoch and watch my sons team play in north Brisbane- the fees are right but cannot agree with the ball in play figures.. z30%.. sounds like some very poor refereeing in game management and letting the ball play. 80% like league seems more likely

Great article!

Thanks for your insights. I coached juniors 10-12 for a couple of years and agree that tackling, breakdowns and ball retention the most important basic skills for kids. It gives them structure and confidence.

Great article. I coach U8s in the Illawarra competition in NSW and it's great to read about the actual grassroots of rugby. Here's my perspective on the junior experience here. Our fees are about $120 including playing kit, which I think is subsidised by club sponsors. So much better value than in QLD. $390 a season is crazy and would have implications on player numbers and which demographic groups can afford to play. It would be a smart idea to somehow subsidise junior registration fees - perhaps through a national junior sponsor like Woolworths in cricket. Most of our games had an accredited referee with coaches doing the rest. Our club were very strict that coaches and parents helping out had to have current Smart Rugby accreditation. 30% ball in play seems low for our comp, but it wouldn't be as high as 80%. My guess is somewhere in the middle. I agree that the uncontested lineouts and scrums do take time. But our kids loved getting involved in the lineout or scrum at every opportunity, and reckon that learning about set pieces is necessary from early on. We had great numbers in our squad for a regional area, and a surprising number come from non-rugby backgrounds - we had parents from League, Aussie Rules, Soccer, and Hockey backgrounds rather than rugby, which was interesting. Our kids played 19 games including gala days this year each with 20 min halves, so approx 760 mins total match time, and trained about 20 times for an hour each training session. We had several novices in our squad and were thrashed the first match without scoring. But by the end of the year we were on par with the leading club, so I think the amount of game time was enough to develop the core skills as well as a love of the game. The proof will be in how many come back for a run next year, though I suspect most will. I think the NRL produces better coaching materials than RA. The drills on the MyLeague app are really useful for simple attack and defence situations and also categorised by age group. I found the coaching content from RA is harder to access and not as useful - I wonder if the U8 programs have been tested against actual U8 groups. I found drills are either way too general - games that focus on spatial awareness rather than direct rugby skills - or way too hard. The structured training programs are not nearly repetitive enough. Kids need to repeat the same drills for weeks on end to master a skill. The most effective training we did was around the tackle and breakdown. When we focused on cleaning out and ball retention in attack, and contesting the breakdown in defence, the kids improved in games. Passing drills were a waste of time for us, as were tackle bags (though the kids love them). IMO the area of opportunity for grassroots rugby is through actively recruiting and developing coaches. If the coach is competent and knows a handful of effective drills to use every week, the kids improve and have fun, and they come back and bring their mates along.