Rugby Australia to target top NRL talent

[bazza]

Is this another take on "play rugby league - see Wigan, play rugby union see Rotorua"

 

[10$ Ferret]

Good luck to the kid, but realistically if he was a special talent as his mother seems to think he is, he would have been picked up. I think his mother has more chips on her shoulder than a family size nachos.
While there are a couple of schools I would not send my kids to, there are plenty good private schools where rural kids and indigenous kids flourish.

I have seen alot more kids that miss out because its only their parents that think they are wonderful than kids that are genuinely talented that miss out.

 

[Canard]

Rotorua Boys is a good school both academically and rugby wise and Rotorua is pretty much Māori culture central,

What appeal does that have for an indigenous Australian I wonder though?

 

[Matua]

What appeal does that have for an indigenous Australian I wonder though?

Brown people being around other brown people can have an appeal outside of the actual culture itself I think?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

What appeal does that have for an indigenous Australian I wonder though?

Multicultural environment with respect for indigenous culture? Probably feels like a better choice than say an elite Auckland school that’s 90% rich white kids

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Is this another take on "play rugby league - see Wigan, play rugby union see Rotorua"

To be fair at least Rotorua is tourist central, I think the lakes and volcanoes are a bit more appealing than Wigan pier

 

[Wb1234]

To be fair at least Rotorua is tourist central, I think the lakes and volcanoes are a bit more appealing than Wigan pier

I’ve been to Wigan pier

mt druitt is more of an attraction

 

[Canard]

Brown people being around other brown people can have an appeal outside of the actual culture itself I think?

Multicultural environment with respect for indigenous culture? Probably feels like a better choice than say an elite Auckland school that’s 90% rich white kids

I'm not entirely knowledgeable on all things Australian Rugby, but given the makeup of the Wallabies these days, I would be very surprised if most GPS schools Rugby teams didn't have a strong representation of players with Pacific Island backgrounds.

 

[bazza]

I'm not entirely knowledgeable on all things Australian Rugby, but given the makeup of the Wallabies these days, I would be very surprised if most GPS schools Rugby teams didn't have a strong representation of players with Pacific Island backgrounds.

A rugby union team is only 15 boys
Year 12 at some of these schools would be 300 boys

 

[Canard]

A rugby union team is only 15 boys
Year 12 at some of these schools would be 300 boys

I honestly don't know much about Union or the workings of GPS schools, but I thought it would be far more than 15 guys in the Rugby squad?

I dont know what its like in 2023, but guys I went to Uni with, told me stories of quite literally every kid playing Rugby at these schools, like they had a First 15, second 15 etc. etc.

Like I said, Im no expert.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I'm not entirely knowledgeable on all things Australian Rugby, but given the makeup of the Wallabies these days, I would be very surprised if most GPS schools Rugby teams didn't have a strong representation of players with Pacific Island backgrounds.

Yeah they get them on scholarships. But it’s not an environment all kids are comfortable in.

 

[Canard]

Yeah they get them on scholarships. But it’s not an environment all kids are comfortable in.

I'd suggest you might struggle to integrate well in a elite national sports team (of any code), if attending school is a challenge.

 

[blukablu]

A rugby union team is only 15 boys
Year 12 at some of these schools would be 300 boys

GPS schools have multiple rugby teams for every grade.

Nudgee has over 35 teams.

 

[bazza]

I honestly don't know much about Union or the workings of GPS schools, but I thought it would be far more than 15 guys in the Rugby squad?

I dont know what its like in 2023, but guys I went to Uni with, told me stories of quite literally every kid playing Rugby at these schools, like they had a First 15, second 15 etc. etc.

Like I said, Im no expert.

my assumption is that they have up to 15 kids on scholarship for the first XV then the 2nds, 3rds, etc are filled with the regular fee paying students

 

[blukablu]

my assumption is that they have up to 15 kids on scholarship for the first XV then the 2nds, 3rds, etc are filled with the regular fee paying students

Maybe 10 years ago. You'd likely have 30-50 kids on rugby scholarships at every school between all the grades now days.

 

[bazza]

Maybe 10 years ago. You'd likely have 30-50 kids on rugby scholarships at every school between all the grades now days.

so about 10 in each year group?

 

[blukablu]

so about 10 in each year group?

Majority if not all of the 1st XV, a decent amount of the 2nd XV. Close to half of the U16a's, a decent amount of the U15a's then a few here and there in younger age groups.

 

[bazza]

Majority if not all of the 1st XV, a decent amount of the 2nd XV. Close to half of the U16a's, a decent amount of the U15a's then a few here and there in younger age groups.

so the majority of kids you are sitting with in class the rest of the time aren't there on union scholarships

 

[The Great Dane]

I don't think the fees are the issue in this case given that the parent is happy to move to another country. It is that they don't want the kid to attend such a school. One advantage RL has is there is a bit of choice on schooling. If you want to play at school at a high level you are probably opting for one of the bigger Catholic schools, a sports high school or some of the other public schools. However, you can get high quality RL at a junior level outside of the school system


I think you have hit the nail on the head with your comment on the people running the ARU - which is why players feel they need to get into the GPS/CAS system to be seen by the right people.

This all largely depends on your location.

Until you get to year 11-12 there aren't really any strong school RL options in Canberra, and a lot of the best RL talent end up playing RU at one of the private schools. At the same time probably the most direct routes in the city to becoming a professional RU player go through the community RU clubs at some stage, particularly the Vikings system.

So it's largely all horses for courses and depends a lot on the culture and options available in any given city.

That is probably true - though RL does appear to have better pathways for people in regional areas. Even having professional teams based in Townsville, Wollongong, Gold Coast and Newcastle is something that RU doesn't have

Again it depends on the regions we're talking about.

Even in RL you're inevitably going to get to a point where you have to relocate at a young age to continue pursuing a career in RL unless you live within roughly an hour of those places and Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra. So at the end of the day it's not really that much different to RU in that regard.

In Union's case this is also more of an issue with the structure of RU in this country and the SR and provincial system than anything else. For decades now their biggest hurdle has been that they don't have a national league and system, and this is but one of the impacts of that, but that's a whole discussion in of it's self.

 

[The Great Dane]

Multicultural environment with respect for indigenous culture? Probably feels like a better choice than say an elite Auckland school that’s 90% rich white kids

The fact that you think that the average private school in Australia isn't a multicultural environment shows that you haven't got a clue what you're talking about lol.