No. I think kids play rugby because of the contact. Its what seperates rugby from football and thats why they come to rugby.

Bradford are playing kids rugby tonight. They're in for a real hammering!!

Whereas many more pitches would be available due to not being used by RU/football teams. It's just another illogical, poorly thought out excuse.

I agree, I don't see it as a viable excuse for the vast, vast majority of clubs. I think it's an excuse started by those ideologically opposed to switching to summer. Ie that idiot who has a column in the League Express.

Go to agree totally .....

Spent several seasons coaching up to U11 age group and am now back with the real tiny tacklers , the Under 7s and coming from a background of 20 years in education / child care , I am continually disheartened and sometimes very disturbed to see individuals 'coaching' our younger age groups who have nil skills or knowledge in the development and face to face interaction with our young players .

I'm not particularly from the 'participation is everything ' camp , I believe that our kids should be encouraged to be successful and ultimately win games but that has not to be to the detriment of the development of the basic core skills of ALL players whatever their abilities and the social advantages that playing team sports brings.

I'm off this afternoon to watch the Cougar Cubs U18s play in a massive game at the top of the National Youth League and I'm proud of the fact that at least 7 of that squad were my original Under 8/9s . We were no where near the best team out there at that age groupand to be honest spent most of our first year as a team getting roundly stuffed by other bigger and more aggressive teams but the learning and the spirit that came from that first season still is to the fore in those existing players now and hopefully will be in the future as they move on into open age and hopefully for a few of them the semi professional game .

The RFL supposed new 'mini mod ' level one coaching course yet again fails spectacularly when dealing with the youngest RL players , why do we not have a level two or three course for those coaches like myself who know our skills and experience make them more suited to dealing with children but want to learn and develop their knowledge further , as is possible for those coaching the open age game ? We are constantly being told that junior RL is crucial to our sports future development yet we relegate it to the most basic coach education ......RFL FAIL

I think you hve hit the nail on the head there. Coach education across the levels is poor in this country.

My suggestion would be that each Super league club as part of their franchise criteria need to develop the coaches within the junior clubs within their catchment area. Coaching workshops should be offered and these should bve specifically tailored to the age group/levels that coaches are working at.

I also think that mini coaching , junior coaching and senior ( 16's + ) should be seperated in terms of quaklifications and courses and badges should be speficic to these areas. The RFL also need to monitor what is being coached more effectively that they do currently ( they don't ).

Bear in mind that according to the RFL's own coaching guidelines ( derived form Sport England ) state that "Sports specific coaching i.e Rugby League should begin until the age of 9." Prior to that age they advocate the Fundamentals of Movement approach which centres around agility and balnace and core physical skills.

Now go and watch and Under 8s game in Hull for example and see how many coaches are trying to teach players to slow down the play the ball or how many teams only really use their best 2/3 players and ignore the rest.

We. as coaches/people intersted in the development of the game need to lobby our local clubs for these types of programmes in order to impprove the standards of coaches and therefore the players in our game.

I'd agree with you both ML Red & Rach. I have sympathy with the RFL though since I know they are trying to change these attitudes and everything in the coaching courses are aimed at skills development. However the problem lies with the individual coaches, teams & clubs in my opinion. They go to the coaching courses, do enough to pass the course and then ignore virtually everything they've been told and go back to being idiots. Like you say very young kids being taught to hold down in the tackle and slow down the ptb. Or just simply, the pass it to the big kid tactic because it means they win. But none of the kids, not even the big kid, get to develop their skills. In my opinion there are far too many coaches in it simply as part of their own little ego trip rather than as a desire to see the kids improve themselves.

The problem, in my opinion, is the amateur game in general. Go to a first team amateur game in Yorkshire or Lancashire and sadly the odds are that you will be at a very aggressive, very intimidating place that is rife with idiotic, drunken behaviour laced with foul language. That attitude sadly then filters down throughout the club to the younger age groups.

I'd agree it would be better if the RFL had lots more monitoring of coaches, however I don't know how much it would cost.

Honestly cant think of any in Hull that will lose pitches because of cricket.

For me im all for the idea, my lads would have been going into winter league in a year so it will be good that there seasons wont have to change as much.

Far better for development of skills etc

Cott tigers were using that excuse, i think there were 4 teams who were dead set against it and had equally flimsy excuses. However from 12's to 15's i think the quality of the pitches should be looked at. Some have next to no grass on and after they are bake solid in our glorious summers they become dangerous.

The pitches should have a good covering of grass and the clubs should have the means to be able to water them.

You're right there about the pitches, every now and again a game will have to be called off due to a pitch being too hard, especially for the older age groups.

It should still be better than in winter though.

I play for Cott Tigers and at the start of last season we had to play on our training pitch rather than our first team pitch due to the cricket, the outfield covers 3/4 of our pitch.

I'm not too fussed whether we go to Summer or stay in winter to be honest - if we did go to summer then some of the teams need to sort the pitches out because during the dry spell of March/April some of the pitches were dust bowls and players were injuring ankles and knees due to the surface

Myton Warriors have the same problem as Cott Tigers in relation to sharing with cricket sides. Mytons first team will play in the NCL premier Division in summer comp but will not be able to play Saturdays due to cricket so for the 1st season most of their home games will be on a Sunday or a wednesday evening. If the 1st team is having those sorts of probllems then their age group sides will obviously struggle too.

The idea of moving to a summer game totally is IMO a good idea. Unfortunately it doesn't feel that the RFL has properly planned for it. There is no provision or committment from local councils across the rugby league heartland to commit to improved facilites is there?

For example it took Myton months to get a council pitch which they pay for to me marked out in the summer months. They even offered to mark it out themselves but the council citing "health and safety concerns" said they couldn't.

Again moving to summer is a good idea but it has to be properly planned and the RFL has to ensure that the facilites and quality playing syrfaces, watered etc are there .

Quote: ML RED " The idea of moving to a summer game totally is IMO a good idea. Unfortunately it doesn't feel that the RFL has properly planned for it. There is no provision or committment from local councils across the rugby league heartland to commit to improved facilites is there? For example it took Myton months to get a council pitch which they pay for to me marked out in the summer months. They even offered to mark it out themselves but the council citing "health and safety concerns" said they couldn't. Again moving to summer is a good idea but it has to be properly planned and the RFL has to ensure that the facilites and quality playing syrfaces, watered etc are there .'" I agree to a great extent but have sympathy with the RFL. My thoughts in May are here: www.pitchero.com/clubs/burybronc ... 16395.html - The RFL have been heavily criticised for NOT going througha aprocess of contacting leagues/BARLA district groups first - what i'd have preferred is to eb just given the information and allowed to plan for myself. Instead, the RFL wnet througha convoluted process to engage certain other groups and instead, we are now rushing through an implementation. Just been told some open age sides in the Pennine League will not play on September 3rd because they need to get district league meetings to approve to clubs moving into the league. Absolute madness! An administrative system for the 1970s...best done away with now!

Quote: ML RED " The idea of moving to a summer game totally is IMO a good idea. Unfortunately it doesn't feel that the RFL has properly planned for it. There is no provision or committment from local councils across the rugby league heartland to commit to improved facilites is there? For example it took Myton months to get a council pitch which they pay for to me marked out in the summer months. They even offered to mark it out themselves but the council citing "health and safety concerns" said they couldn't. Again moving to summer is a good idea but it has to be properly planned and the RFL has to ensure that the facilites and quality playing syrfaces, watered etc are there .'" I agree to a great extent but have sympathy with the RFL. My thoughts in May are here: www.pitchero.com/clubs/burybronc ... 16395.html - The RFL have been heavily criticised for NOT going througha aprocess of contacting leagues/BARLA district groups first - what i'd have preferred is to eb just given the information and allowed to plan for myself. Instead, the RFL wnet througha convoluted process to engage certain other groups and instead, we are now rushing through an implementation. Just been told some open age sides in the Pennine League will not play on September 3rd because they need to get district league meetings to approve to clubs moving into the league. Absolute madness! An administrative system for the 1970s...best done away with now!

Spot on. Sadly far too much of the amateur game is still stuck in the 1970's.

My son currently plays both RL and RU (under 8s) so playing summer rugby suits him fine.

RU currently only play tag rugby up to the under 9s when they can be introduced to the tackle. This has a couple of knock-on affects (pardon the pun!).

Firstly, it is extremely difficult for the RU club to attract young players to the club because all they want to do is tackle. Being in the RL heartlands, kids have number of RL clubs they can choose to go fulfil this desire.

However, there are a couple of other 'RU players' that play in the same RL team as my son during the summer and it has to be said that their handling skills are greatly superior to the other kids.

From my experience, the majority of time spent in training is devoted to the contact area whilst some of the players are lacking in basic skills such as catching and passing. Playing tag rugby allows the basic skills to be developed first and foremost at a young age and the rest is built around that.

Like it or not, both codes have things that they can learn from each other. In my opinion (in general), the RU clubs have far better facilities than the majority of RL clubs and the coaching (even at young ages) is more 'professional'.

I have also noticed that the RL games are played in a far more intimidating atmospheres with parents shouting things like "Smash him", "Rip his head off" and arguing with the referee - c'mon guys, they're only 7 years old!!! Nobody seems to want to do anything about this either as blind-eyes are turned to it. In RU, it is common practice for parents to sign codes of conduct and clubs are often reported if spectators are abusive.

If all RL clubs go to summer rugby, then I believe that partnerships should be forged between local RL and RU clubs to player share. That way, the players gain the experience and coaching of the contact area in RL, whilst the RU will enhance their handling skills.

On a side note, I do have a bit of an issue with summer rugby in that the grounds are too hard. If they were so hard during the winter with frost, then games would be called off. What's the difference just cos it's sunny??

By the way, I don't want this to turn into a RL v RU discussion. I love both codes and am proud of it!!!