Welcome from P&E
Kia ora, I’m incredibly proud and excited to have recently joined the Partnerships and Engagement team at Canterbury Rugby along with new Partnerships Manager Zac Topping, who has joined us from Chelsea Football Club.
It’s awesome to see the senior club seasons in full swing and I’m looking forward to seeing junior and teenage rugby kick off around the region in the next couple of weeks.
It’s been a fun week, joining forces to deliver the Crusaders in Clubs, taking players to 10 clubs across Canterbury over two days. We’d love to see this happen more often and will continue to work towards this.
Our first ever school holiday programme delivered unforgettable experiences for 90 kids for 2 days during April, providing loads of fun, skills and drills and attending a Crusaders training session. Watch this space for the July school holidays...
We are excited for the season ahead, and are grateful for our newly signed and existing commercial partners for their support of Canterbury Rugby.
If you see me about on the sidelines or at an NPC or FPC game this year, please come up, say hi and tell me about your love for the game.
Ngā mihi,
Matt Quinn
GM of Partnerships & Engagement, Canterbury Rugby Football Union
From Club to Country
For Hannah King, signing a Black Ferns contract still feels surreal. “I’m so excited and very emotional – it’s a dream I’ve had since I was a little girl because I’ve played rugby right through my life.”
That may not seem like a long time, but King started playing at the age of four, filling in on her elder brother’s team at the West Melton Rugby Club. She stuck with the club, playing in boys’ teams right through to U13 level, although there were offers to tempt her away.
“When I got to tackle level, I had the choice of playing netball, coached by my mum, or staying in rugby, to be coached by Dad. I had so many great friends in the rugby environment, I decided to stay there,” she says.
“Mum was a wee bit gutted but she’s become one of my biggest supporters.”
King was proudly one of the first members of the Ellesmere Royals – an U16 girls team who played in a new Canterbury competition for teenage girls. At 16, she made the significant step up into women’s rugby, with the Christchurch club.
words by Suzanne McFadden…. Read more
Our new U85kg’s Grade is officially underway
New Brighton Rugby Club hosted an U85kg preseason match on Saturday against a team that formed that same morning.
The “invitational” side consisted of mainly Sydenham and Burnside players joining forces to give U85kg rugby a whirl, some playing rugby for the very first time.
Without the pressures of an outcome, the invitational boys took the field an hour after shaking hands and learning each other’s names, having never met before that morning.
Amongst them was Lochie, previously a footballer of the round ball variety. Choosing to come along to the game with some friends, it seems Lochie has already made the switch to rugby after one game, “all the boys were playing, so thought I’d give it a whack. I loved it. I’m definitely coming back next week” he said.
Taking to the wing for the invitational side, Lochie received his first hit ten minutes in running full pelt with the try line in sight.
“I got back up, so it’s alright” he said afterwards.
The team wasn’t just first time players, with some who are no longer eligible for the U18 grade but not convinced they were ready to take on colts.
Four lean (which admittedly is customary for the grade) and cheeky Sydenham boys raved about the game and the grade. Sebastian, Toby, Tyler and Blake were all eager to explain their highlights of the day, speaking almost always at the same time. While this made it almost impossible to know who was saying what, it was evident the atmosphere of the day and the thrill of playing in the upcoming season was searing through each of them.
One (we’re pretty sure was Blake) said “I’m pretty sore but that’s purely from the defeat – my ego took a hit”. Despite having met their team mates that morning, the invitational side put up a decent fight to New Brighton who have been training together for a month.
The opinion amongst new rugby players and those that had been playing since their rippa days was the same though, “everyone is the same size, there’s no big fellas running straight at you” said Toby (AKA ‘Salmon’ supposedly after the way he slips through the oppositions defensive line).
“Everyone is the same, it’s much more equal” said Tyler “I reckon it was mean, I loved it.
So, what would these boys say to someone who’s looking at signing up? “Give it a crack. Dive right into the deep end and join Sydenham”.
If you’re not in the Sydenham area but U85kg sounds like it would be a good fit for you, check out our list of clubs who are entering a team in the tournament this season here.
words by Hannah Yates
We go again tomorrow at Lincoln Uni Rugby Club, come and check it out!
A further 1,700 ‘Keep it Positive’ sideline bibs in the Community
Canterbury Rugby and Principal Partner Ray Whites’ commitment to positive sideline behaviour will again be front and center across the region’s rugby fields, with a further 1,700 ‘Keep it Positive’ sideline bibs handed out to clubs and schools.
Adding to the 500 that were supplied to junior coaches in 2023, secondary school and senior club sides have been provided with the bibs to help identify who should be on the sideline, whilst reinforcing the message to provide safe, positive environments for players, coaches, referees and spectators.
“The feedback was really positive from the first roll out last year, which lead to more clubs and schools asking how they too can get on board,” said Fiona Smith, CRFU Community Rugby Manager. "Many of the clubs and schools have been looking for ways to clearly identify who their reserve players are, but the cost has been a barrier. So, this not only helps them and the match officials, but also helps get the Keep it Positive message out further too. Having Ray Whites’ assistance in this has been invaluable.
“It’s great to see such a committed response to promoting positive sideline behaviour," said Ray Whites’ Clare Morris. We love how rugby connects people across Canterbury and it’s important for that to be a positive experience, so anything Ray White can do to support that is a key driver for us.”
The bibs have been supplied to all Premier/Division 1 Men & Womens’ teams across North Canterbury, Ellesmere and Metro competitions, with teenage teams in clubs and schools about to receive theirs in time for their season kick off in early May.
This includes 150 teams in teenage grades and 35 in Premier/ Division one men's and women’s teams across the region.
The bright yellow bibs are now worn by junior rugby coaches who referee games, reserves at school and senior rugby, through to Canterbury’s NPC and FPC squads.
"Sideline behaviour impacts on all participants in the game, players, coaches, match officials and supporters. By mirroring what happens at a high-performance level and clearly identifying who is involved in the game and in what capacity, we aim to improve the experience of all," Smith added.
The Keep it Positive message is also clearly displayed throughout Hagley Park with the permanent post pads supporting the message too.
Community Round up
Nearly one thousand kids across Canterbury have had the chance to try rugby in schools in March, April and May, thanks to the Tākarokaro program. Led by Canterbury Rugby’s Claudia Bethell, Tākarokaro is designed to include rugby as a part of a schools curriculum and form links with local rugby clubs. In turn this connects the students to their local clubs to continue to enjoy the benefits of the game and rugby community.
The Master Classes were also a real hit in 2024, with the likes of our NPC Coaches Matt, Craig and Alex all leading sessions on attach, defence and set piece, and receiving their compulsory RugbySmart training at the same time.
The feedback has been awesome, “the content was great, the people delivering were great and it’s really helpful for our coaching practise”. “There’s a lot of knowledge in the room, not only the presenters but coaches in there. I learnt a lot that I can take forward into the season.”
RugbySmart is an integral part of how we manage safety in rugby from Year 9 upwards and therefore must be attended every season by all coaches. Coaches who didn’t attend the Master Classes were also offered a webinar to complete the training online. Coaches who are still to complete their online training can access the online Rugby Smart course by logging into my rugby profile and click on the education tab and select e-learning.
SmallBlacks courses also form part of our safety initiatives and provide information for coaches of Junior teams. We have run 25 courses across North Canterbury, Ellesmere and Metro with a few courses remaining. If you haven’t attended yet please get along, see dates here.
Our Game Development team have also been busy in the community delivering fun have a go sessions as well as tackle clinics and coach support.
Over the next few weekends tackle clinics are being run in Ellesmere and Metro to help with the transition from rippa to tackle for year 3 and 4 players. If you would like some support at your training, please reach out to us.
Marist Albion held a holiday program in the end of school term break, getting kids amped up for their season ahead.
Not having hosted a holiday program since pre covid, Junior club Captain Rowan O’Gorman decided now was the time to bring it on back.
“We saw an opportunity, I managed to rope in some awesome coaches from our senior team, our prems captain, colts captain and Gus who is a part of the Crusaders program” he said.
Rowan is clearly a true club man, not only wearing the hat of Junior club captain but also a premier team player himself and coaching two Junior teams.
Hosting three days of drills and skills training across the two weeks, approximately 30 children ranging from 7 to 13 years old signed up for day two after only advertising on their Facebook page the week prior.
It wasn’t just Marist Albion players joining in on the fun, clubs from all across Canterbury were represented.
“We had kids from Merivale, Papanui, High School Old Boys, Ohoka and Saracens” said Rowan, “some kids haven’t even played before and looking at playing this season”.
The program wasn’t just about enjoying some rugby training over the holidays, with a focus on safety within contact, “the safest technique is the best technique” said Rowan “and making sure the kids are having fun while they’re doing it”.
It seems Canterbury Junior players clearly love their rugby trainings, as Canterbury Rugby also hosted a sold out holiday program with Evolution Sports Coaching. Selling out 60 spots, the program expanded to take on 20 more children and had an additional 20 on a waiting list.
Dan Van of Evolution Sports coaching, a PE teacher and first XV rugby coach at Chisnallwood Intermediate, teamed up with CRFU for the first time this year but has been holding rugby programs for two or three years.
With five stations set up of defence, attack, catch and pass, scrum and ruck techniques as well as kicking, each one was assisted by Academy players.
“I actually coached some of them back at Chisnallwood Intermediate. They’ve been really good, they’ve just been awesome” said Dan.
Abby of Darfield Rugby Clubs favourite part of the day was “learning to kick off the tee” and Ruby of Lincoln Rugby Club “really liked the defensive skills station”.
If you missed out this time, you can fill out an expression of interest here and be the first to know about our next one!
words by Hannah Yates
Share an incredible moment with your whānau and support our Canterbury players when they pull on the black jersey!
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