Walla rugby concerns

[zimeric]

OK so 2 weeks into the season and im worried.
It may be just one club doing it but that remains to be seen.

short story made long...

As you know wallah rugby is a washed down version of touch/midi...
no tackling and Lineouts and scrums are optional (uncontested)
Players are 'tackled' by touching the ball carrier with two hands anywhere on the body below the neck and above the knees. Well my kids have had the pleasure of playing against two teams from the same club in consecutive weeks. This club which will remain unnamed for now has got their kids to play some sort of pass the parcel game to get around the rules and virtually guarantee a try every time they have the ball.

What they do is get the kids into a line one behind the other and run straight at the opposition, sacrificing the ball carrier to a tag at which point he passes it to the next player and so on marching their way down the field one after the other... untill theyve gained enough ground to simply make a last short pass and the kid virtually falls over the line to score..

Very effective method of scoring tries as there is no tag limit, however... i have issue with this..

After noticing that it seems to be the way this club is coaching all its walla teams i feel that it is against the spirit of rugby and unfair manipulation of the rules to meet some sort of end.
My kids go out to play rugby,, have a run, pass, tag and enjoy themselves. These kids are not enjoying the game and not learning any other skills than scoring a try.
Its boring to watch.
My kids get frustrated as they cant tag the next player without retreating another 5 metres so they are always losing ground on matter how well they are tagging or putting pressure on the opposition players.

I can only say i hope no other clubs are coaching their kids this way.. its poor form

Either that or bring in a tackle count like touch.. maybe 10 tags and then turnover if no try is scored.
/rant

[jazza93]

That is pathetic. Walla rugby is based around teaching them basic skills and having fun, there is no tables or competition. Of course there are going to be exploits but only people who completely miss the point will go looking for them.

Next week tell one of the rugbyWA officials to go down and watch the game if its ruining it for everyone else.

[shasta]

OK so 2 weeks into the season and im worried.


Either that or bring in a tackle count like touch..

While I have not seen this, I agree that this type of coaching is contrary to the spirit of the game and, if it's a club policy to coach this way, the officials need to take a look at their motives for coaching.

The the point of modifying the rules in both Rugby codes is to keep the nippers as safe as possible. But second to that is to embed the skills of Rugby and in particular to emphasise the team play structure and nature of the game, rather than the final score.

[pieter blackie]

rugby with no tackling is rubbish I could not believe my eyes when I say that when we arrived here from South Africa almost 4 years ago.

[zimeric]

to be fair Pieter.. I cant remember playing rugby untill i was 9 or 10 anyway..
We had colts which was year 3, 4 & 5 and and XI team Juniors which was years 6 & 7. Years 1 & 2 played non contact non competitive sports.

I have noticed that League starts their U6s tackling straight up and they didnt seem to get too upset by that.. however they all wore skull caps and other protective gear which isnt compulsory in Union...

Im ok with Walla it teaches the kids the basics without them getting put off by the one 'big' kid in the team smashing them all the time..

[pieter blackie]

Marcell started playing U/6 Bulletjie rugby (Bayby Bulls) and it was 10 aside full contact

[RugbyZAP]

The coaches/club could be reacting to parent pressure. Maybe parents are demanding that their team wins at all costs.

Regardless, someone twit(s) has obviously completely missed the point of walla rugby, and it needs to be pointed out to RugbyWA. It sounds like a completely pointless exercise that will discourage the kids of not only that team, but any team that competes against them.

[GIGS20]

Wait till you meet them in under nines zim. We had a couple of teams who played Walla using every trick in the book to get a win. The all pretty much got hammered in mini and all it did was add a tackle and a ruck to the game.

If you come up against this team again, play the same tactic. Stand your entire team back 5 from the play, shoot a tackler out to the ball runner, as soon as they pass it off, shoot another tackler. After a while making small gains, they'll have to do something. They'll either try and step your tackler or they'll try and pass the ball........before longif you're lucky, a game of rugby might break out.

I was always of the mind that Walla was about preparing kids for real rugby and always coached it that way....we didn't win every game, particularly when I put my fatties in the scrum (the sheep station guys always put their fastest guys in the front row)

We turned the tables in mini though!

[zimeric]

thats what i dont understand though
the scores arent even recorded.. 9 times out of 10 its a draw anyway.. such a waste of everyones time.

[pieter blackie]

thats what i dont understand though
the scores arent even recorded.. 9 times out of 10 its a draw anyway.. such a waste of everyones time.

it is because some loosing idiot somewhere in the world came up with this thing that winning is not important

[Burgs]

I guess there is two ways to look at it Zim, either use the opportunity to teach your own boys about the spirit of Rugby, fair play and as Gigs suggests, use it and try and find ways to combat it.
Or, citing the spirit of Rugby and accepting losing the match, pull the team off and make the other team look like a pack of wankers.

[GIGS20]

thats what i dont understand though
the scores arent even recorded.. 9 times out of 10 its a draw anyway.. such a waste of everyones time.

it is because some loosing idiot somewhere in the world came up with this thing that winning is not important

I am choosing to assume that Zim was talking abou the tactic being pointless not the system. I thought the lack of a scoreline was great for the game, it meant that every kid got a run, most of them applauded a classy run for a try and the spirit of the game wasn't (often) hampered by some tosser of a parent getting the wanks on because of a poor call by an inexperienced ref or getting up the kids for being beaten by a better team.

It was a good introduction to the higher grades where scoring was counted and most teams looked at fielding their best team for the game. It gave those kids who needed a couple of years to get their head around the game an opportunity to do so, and we all just had some fun!

Isn't that mainly what the game's about anyway?