Rugby League in UK

[the pieman]

That's an easy fix though, with all the ex players and coaches on this site alone they could volunteer to run aftershock clubs.

Wigan are very active in schools in the borough and have taken over the running of some school sessions that i am aware of. Not sure how far it extends out, but surely it must be a pre-requisite for any club to be at least in the schools of their catchment area as a minimum

Is that realistic or fair?

I get the point and I get the need to increase amateur rugby and rugby at schools, however.

How does it work in schools with exam boards and curriculums? Rugby clubs could be offering X Y Z but can the school knock back and say rugby league isn’t on our curriculum? So thanks but no thanks.

Yes, i think it is both fair and realistic

i also get your point that it may not be on the curriculum, however, RL is one of the main sports in towns across the north of England, so why shouldnt it be pushed to be available and taught as part of PE lessons. Why should it just be football, athletics, basketball and cricket.

Worst case they should be in the head teachers space, promoting the club, the benefits of playing and watching RL, giving free tickets away to school kids. There has to be positive promotion, and not just think that oh this school(s) dont like RL, so lets not bother. if thats the case, we all may as well not bother and pack up now

How do football clubs grow their fans bases? I'm guessing there is lots of local activity, but equally because of the size of the game, they are looking at global fans, hence all the pre-season tours all over the world. RL is nowhere near that size or scale, but doesnt mean that clubs cant try to attract new fans locally or on a wider basis, and no reason why that shouldnt start in the schools

[Mike]

Wigan are very active in schools in the borough and have taken over the running of some school sessions that i am aware of. Not sure how far it extends out, but surely it must be a pre-requisite for any club to be at least in the schools of their catchment area as a minimum

Is that realistic or fair?

I get the point and I get the need to increase amateur rugby and rugby at schools, however.

How does it work in schools with exam boards and curriculums? Rugby clubs could be offering X Y Z but can the school knock back and say rugby league isn’t on our curriculum? So thanks but no thanks.

Yes, i think it is both fair and realistic

i also get your point that it may not be on the curriculum, however, RL is one of the main sports in towns across the north of England, so why shouldnt it be pushed to be available and taught as part of PE lessons. Why should it just be football, athletics, basketball and cricket.

You can push it to schools sure, but making it a pre-requisit for a club to exist that RL has to be played in schools in its area is taking it too far IMO. Clubs have no influence over what activities a school offers and nor should they. Imagine the Premeir League pushing to ban all other sports, compared to the RLs pushing power.

[the pieman]

Is that realistic or fair?

I get the point and I get the need to increase amateur rugby and rugby at schools, however.

How does it work in schools with exam boards and curriculums? Rugby clubs could be offering X Y Z but can the school knock back and say rugby league isn’t on our curriculum? So thanks but no thanks.

Yes, i think it is both fair and realistic

i also get your point that it may not be on the curriculum, however, RL is one of the main sports in towns across the north of England, so why shouldnt it be pushed to be available and taught as part of PE lessons. Why should it just be football, athletics, basketball and cricket.

You can push it to schools sure, but making it a pre-requisit for a club to exist that RL has to be played in schools in its area is taking it too far IMO. Clubs have no influence over what activities a school offers and nor should they. Imagine the Premeir League pushing to ban all other sports, compared to the RLs pushing power.

fair point that a pre-requisite is too far

i think clubs can have an influence, but you need a PE teacher / head of school to have an interest in rugby league at minimum to probably give you a fighting chance

at primary school i only ever played football (going back 40 years now though) and never touched a rugby ball until secondary school. However, these days you would hope that all primary school kids in the Wigan borough get chance to experience RL, whether through PE lessons or via free tickets issued to the school. If they dont like it fair enough but at least give them an exposure to it

[Mike]

Yes, i think it is both fair and realistic

i also get your point that it may not be on the curriculum, however, RL is one of the main sports in towns across the north of England, so why shouldnt it be pushed to be available and taught as part of PE lessons. Why should it just be football, athletics, basketball and cricket.

You can push it to schools sure, but making it a pre-requisit for a club to exist that RL has to be played in schools in its area is taking it too far IMO. Clubs have no influence over what activities a school offers and nor should they. Imagine the Premeir League pushing to ban all other sports, compared to the RLs pushing power.

fair point that a pre-requisite is too far

i think clubs can have an influence, but you need a PE teacher / head of school to have an interest in rugby league at minimum to probably give you a fighting chance

at primary school i only ever played football (going back 40 years now though) and never touched a rugby ball until secondary school. However, these days you would hope that all primary school kids in the Wigan borough get chance to experience RL, whether through PE lessons or via free tickets issued to the school. If they dont like it fair enough but at least give them an exposure to it

When I was at school, the only rugby available was union, and then only in 4th and 5th years, and we didn't have a team, it was a session every few weeks with one inter-house game. I tried to get a league session (And I think if I remember correctly we might have done one), but it never went beyond that. We did football, cricket and hockey at my school.

I imagine there's a hell of a lot of safety considerations with a full contact sport like rugby these days in schools, plus I think a lot of organized school sport outside the curriculum depends on the good will and unpaid effort of staff. You really do need the buy-in of an influential staff member to get a particular sport played regularly. I'd say the best bet for clubs would be to support and establish junior clus outside of schools in their area's to get youngsters interested. That's how I played when I was a kid, not really at school.