Introduction To Mini Rugby at Colchester Rugby Club
Training is every Sunday between 10:30 and 12:00 starting from the first Sunday in September. Children are encouraged to try the game for a couple of weeks before deciding to join the club, but only paid up members can play in games against other clubs. Junior Membership is £20 per annum or £40 for Family Membership, but these prices are discounted if paid by direct debit.
It is essential that children wear warm clothes both at training and on match days. Sweatshirts, jogging bottoms, gloves, woolly hats, anything to keep the cold out. Mouthguards are very important at all ages, and they can be bought from the club shop for £2, although a custom-made mouthguard from your dentist will always be the best option. Boots must have moulded studs or aluminium studs with the British Standards Kitemark on them. For match days, sponsored shirts will be provided, but children must wear black shorts and black socks with white tops, both available from the club shop.
There is a full fixture list where a match fee of £1 is payable for the day. Any mini player who turns up at a match will get a game as long as they are members and the team manager and coaches think it is safe for the child to do so. All age groups have RFU qualified coaches in charge, and every year the club holds Start Rugby and RFU Preliminary Award courses, as well as in-house refresher sessions and coach training sessions from the club's own senior coaches and from Eastern Counties Youth Development Officers. All minis matches must be taken by a qualified referee, and Colchester RFC has a number within its mini section, with courses held each season to train more. Any queries about the mini section should go to the Minis Chairman Eddie Price, or to the individual age group managers. Ages are taken as at 1 September.
The club expects all players, coaches, referees and parents to adhere to our code of conduct to ensure fair play for everyone.
Mini Rugby has been played at Colchester since 1975 with Frank Johnson coaching a group of youngsters when the club was still at its old Mile End ground. In 1982 the first Colchester Mini Rugby Festival was held at Mill Road with teams from Mersea Island, Chelmsford, Brentwood, Chingford and Fairbairn House. Teams took part in five age groups from U8 to U12, and the original programme shows that all age groups played 9-a-side with three forwards and 6 backs.
The late 80s and 90s saw tremendous growth in the game with the introduction of the RFU Continuum laying down Rules of Play for Mini Rugby, and under the guidance of Alan Bancroft, the late Derek Street and then Anton Vidler, Colchester's minis began to prosper. In 1997 Andrew Sarek became the the club's first Chairman of Mini Rugby, underlining the importance of the section in the club in terms of membership, revenue and of future players. Since then, an Under 6 age group has evolved mainly for the younger brothers and sisters of players, but children as young as 4 years old turn up every Sunday for rugby orientated fun and games.
Since 1994 Colchester's Mini Section has been sponsored by McDonald's Restaurants . It is thanks to this sponsorship that the club is able to offer some of the best facilities in East Anglia for coaching its youngest players, and is able to support its Schools Development Officers in introducing New Image Rugby to local primary schools. As well as setting up and administering a local primary school's league, the club organises three annual schools' tournaments. The club is fortunate to have six dedicated minis pitches and a full range of training equipment specially designed for minis, including contact shields, tackle bags, training poles and a scrum machine.
The mini section now boasts over 150 registered players with most of the six age groups fielding two sides. The club also has over 30 RFU qualified coaches in the mini section as well as a dozen RFU qualified mini/midi referees, with coaching and refereeing courses held annually at the club. From its modest beginnings, the Colchester Mini Rugby Festival has grown into the biggest in the Eastern Counties, with the 1999 event attracting over 1000 players in 80 teams from 18 clubs, with sides travelling from Norfolk, Surrey, Hertfordshire, London and Northamptonshire. The last three seasons have been the most successful ever for the mini section, with Colchester winning the top club awards at the Suffolk RU Mini Festival in 1999 and 2000, and at the 1999 Chelmsford Festival.
The emphasis at Colchester is very much on fun and enjoyment. The coaches are encouraged to remember that they are not coaching rugby, they are coaching children. Every child who comes to the club is coached to play the game safely, as a team member, and with respect for opponents and the referee. Each session should not just develop playing skills, but also an understanding and eventually a love for the game that will keep them playing through to adulthood. In some cases, children will have played rugby for over 12 years before they have even become Colts!
Winning is always nice, but we want children to come away from a training session or after a match and say "I enjoyed that!", and look forward to coming back next week.
Go to age group pages for individual team Honours
Suffolk Champions: 1999, 2000,
2002, 2003
Essex Champions: 2002
Hanbury Allen Shield for Top Club at the Chelmsford Festival: 1999
Copyright © 1999-2002 Colchester RFC.
Last updated 15 Aug 2004