What is the WA school system?

[chiselhead]

What exactly is the schools system in WA?
What schools play in Perth? Is there a competition?
Is there any country school rugby?

[pieter blackie]

there is a comp here is a link to Rugby WA web page http://www.rugbywa.com.au/community_...ion,52700.html

[pieter blackie]

Then there is the newly named Darling Range Sport College (Forrestfield)

http://www.forrestfieldshs.wa.edu.au/

[BDAVEY]

The school system is pretty disjointed u have the PSA schools who play each other and then a few High schools who join in the club comp. Why they can all be in one comp beats me, they have tried but both have their own agenda's esp the PSA schools - from experiance ex PSA parent

[pieter blackie]

Junior club rugby is the way to go in WA

[Burgs]

Chisel:

The PSA is made up of seven of the older schools/colleges in Perth in Aquinas, Christchurch, Guildford, Hale, Scotch, Trinity and Wesley.
Their 1st XV's have played for the Brother Redmond Cup since around '58 from memory and, as such, have the longest competitive history as a group.

During my schoolday knowledge, which runs about 1980-95 (due to family and interest), there was very few other schools playing then and indeed WA Schoolboy (WASRU) teams generally were a virtual PSA XV with a handful of others, where as WA Junior (WAJRU, mixture of Schools and Clubs players) teams of the day where normally around 50/50, though some played both School and Club each weekend.

John XXIII and CBC Fremantle possibly have the oldest Rugby programs of the other schools and used to regularly play us in pre-season matches and in the Caltex Shield (U/13) and Caltex Cup (U/15) Schoolboys comps. While not as advanced back then they were kind of seen as pseudo PSA Schools, while the likes of Newman were just getting started.

Historically Aquinas (Catholic*) and Guildford (most of the rest*)were the two PSA power houses, strongly relying on the fact they had access to the majority of the big boned country boarders* who didn't have Aussie Rules backgrounds.
This changed during the 80's with most schools winning the Cup at some stage, with Trinity finally breaking through and then dominating from 91, until Hale rose to promenance in the late 90's to become the "Joeys" of the PSA.

As an example of how tight the comp can be (aside from Hale's dominance) here is the final ladder from 2007!

Final PSA Table 2007:
Team P W L D For Against Points
Hale 10 10 0 0 466 61 20
Scotch 10 5 5 0 184 144 10
Aquinas 10 5 5 0 159 165 10
Christ Church 10 5 5 0 135 157 10
Guildford 10 5 5 0 127 156 10
Wesley 10 5 5 0 162 207 10
Trinity 10 0 10 0 55 379 0

During the 90's this situation changed with growing interest in some public and other private schools to the point now I understand their is quite a strong schools scene which is called the Combined Schools & Colleges (CSC).

The CSC is divided into a North and a South Comp as follows:

CSC North

Aranmore
Churchlands
John XXIII
Mater Dei
Newman
Ocean Reef

CSC South

CBC Fremantle
Corpus Christi
Frederick Irwin
Kolbe
Mandurah CC

I understand that Aranmore is by far the strongest of these schools each year and a few who may be in the know consider them to be at a higher standard than Hale and the PSA.

Aranmore has Rugby as a school subject and dedicate time to skills, nutrition, laws and other aspects of the code during school. (My kinda school as a student!)

Ironically, I get the impression that the CSC is now seen to be "the" schoolboys competition despite its relatively short history.

I agree with Bill above that due to agenda's, especially by the PSA, there would probably never be a change to an all in comp. The PSA have all of the other sports and history to consider too to be fair. The other thing is that PSA Heads don't allow themselves to (publically)support the competitive nature of Finals, that is why only 1sts teams ever have points next to their respective ladders etc.

An answer may be possible in finally allowing CBC and JXXIII into the PSA comp to form one group of nine schools and the remaining nine CSC schools to form the other group, playing through to a Final
Currently there is ten matches in a PSA season and I think eight in the CSC plus there John Welborn Cup knock out series.

This new structure would need an eight week single round (nine with the rolling bye?) and a Final however, to ensure plenty of matches for all boys, perhaps the Final could be for each position on the ladder for over all rankings, ie 1v1, 2v2...9v9, at a Schoolboys Carnival at MES or wherever.

Anyway, hope this rambling fills some gaps for you.
You may also be interested in some of the discussion on WA Schoolboy Rugby we had back in '07: http://twf.com.au/showthread.php?t=7802

[chiselhead]

Thanks for the outstanding run down. I didn't have any idea about schoolboy rugby in WA and although it isn't extensive, it is further developed than I had previously thought. Cheers