Bluevale Collegiate Rugby Football Club
The First Week 03/06/2010
 
Week One completed.
The coaches are pleased with your progress during the first week. In particular, the positive tone and attitude of hard work have been excellent. Seniors, keep encouraging the Juniors and Bantams, and continue to lead by example by setting the tone in each drill. Some of you may have realized that you are not at the level of fitness you thought you were. Make sure you focus on your technique during drills, especially during  Ciezar's "power sessions". You will see significant progress in only a few weeks if you do this.
Here is a recap of some of the things we discussed:
 - always make smart decisions with the ball... no suicide passes!
 - communication on offense and defense is the key!
 - depth on offense, flat on defense

Continue to communicate with your coaches if you will be absent from practice. We expect mature young men who are ready to commit to this team and be successful.

If you have any friends who are thinking about playing, they are always welcome, but time is running out to make a decision! So if they are interested, tell them to talk to Mr. Ciezar in portable 1307 ASAP!
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The Coaches have been very pleased with the turnout for the tournament at lunch this week. Make sure you check the schedule for when your team plays to avoid forfeiting.
If you have been watching the tournament and are interested in playing rugby for BCI this year, see Mr. Ciezar in 1307 to sign up. It isn't too late to join!
Practices begin on March 1st after school.
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 We had a jersey fitting today and the turnout was excellent. Great to see so many of you excited for the start of the rugby season.
Mr. Ciezar and I have to finalize the jersey order by NEXT THURSDAY, so if we don't have your information please see either of us ASAP. We need your shirt size, waist size and number (1-15).
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Happy New Year!
Voting for the jersey design will be open until Sunday night. If you someone who hasn't completed the survey below, let them know that time is running out.

Next Wednesday after school the Kukri rep will be visiting BCI for a jersey fitting session. If you would like to try on a jersey to confirm your size and choose your number (1-15) then plan  to attend. If you don't come it doesn't mean you won't get a jersey. It does mean that the coaches will be picking your size and number... and you don't want us to do that. :-)

See me or Mr. Ciezar if you have any questions.
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A few of you have asked some questions in the New Player Survey, here are the answers:

How much will it cost to play rugby?
Mr. Ciezar estimates that it will be about $160. This includes a jersey, shorts, socks, team fee, athletic fee, and tournament fees.

When does rugby start?
The rugby season officially begins on March 1st 2010 (which is a Monday). That is when we will be starting practices as a team.

Is there a Girls Rugby Team? Is there a Junior Girls Rugby team?
There is only one girls rugby team which includes both Senior and Junior players. Speak to Ms. VanKoughnett for more information.

What are the differences between Rugby and Football, besides not wearing any pads?
Great question! And the answer is... a lot. One way to describe Rugby is that it is a combination of soccer and football. Soccer because you have to be in good shape to run for the entire game (50 min) and Football because you tackle your opponents and score by crossing the end line.
Here are a few key differences:

Contact
  • In rugby, the only contact is with the ball carrier when he is tackled or when the two teams are rucking to get possession of the ball. In football, blocking has most players hitting their opponents on every play
  • Tackling in rugby is supposed to bring the player to the ground where he has to give up possession of the ball. In football, tackling is supposed to prevent the opponent from getting closer to the goal line.
  • Basically, rugby tackles require more skill than football because you need to safely pull your opponent to the ground and then take the ball, whereas in Football you just need to knock him down for the play to stop
Passing
  • one of the biggest differences is that Football allows forward passing and Rugby does not.
  • Rugby also allows continuous passing but Football usually only has one pass per play
Scoring
  • Football has touchdowns worth six points and a one point conversion. The place where the kick is taken is always in the same spot.
  • Rugby has "Tries" for five points and a two-point conversion. The place where the kick is taken depends on where the scoring player has "touched down" the ball. That is why you often see rugby players run to the middle of the endzone after crossing the end line... it is to give their kicker a better angle.
  • Rugby also has penalty kicks. If a player on Team X does something illegal, then the referee awards Team Z  a "penalty". If the spot of the penalty is close to Team X's goal posts, Team Z will "go for posts" and try to kick the ball through the uprights. If they do, they get three points.
  • The biggest difference in scoring is that, in Rugby, ANYONE can score a try.  
Fitness
  • While i would never argue that Football players are not fit, Rugby requires a type of fitness more like soccer. In football you get a break every 20-30 seconds to set up the next play. In rugby the game may not stop for 10 minutes! Therefore you need to be able to run for long periods of time and be able to accelerate to top speed very quickly. That is why we focus so much on fitness... Good teams are often beaten by fitter teams in the last minutes of the game.
Players on the Field during a game
  • In football, there are 12 (Canadian rules) and 11 (American) for each team
  • In Rugby there are 15 players for each team. This means that MORE people get to play more often!
I hope this helps.

You can post more questions below.

Mr. Ballantyne
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30 players have filled in the online form for the Jersey and Kit survey so far. According to our list, that still leaves about 50 guys yet to give their input. If you have completed the survey, good job! If you know someone who hasn't, let them know that they need to get this done or we may pick a design they don't like. If they are also interested in any extra "kit" like a track suit or hoodie, then they should also be letting us know.
The reason for doing this now is to avoid any confusion in the spring. Once the season starts, we want to be focused on one thing: rugby.

Special thanks to Sam Taylor for getting copies of all the Six Nations games this past year. We will be watching those videos in February to get our newest players familiar with the game and the rest of you excited for another great year on the pitch.

Keep working hard on your off-season conditioning!
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Mr. Ciezar and I were very impressed with the number of guys who showed up for the meetings last Thursday. Keep talking rugby up to your friends that are interested in playing next spring. They can fill in the form on the homepage if they are interested or see one of the coaches at school and we will get their contact information.

Remember that we will need to commit NOW to the goals we have set out for our program this season. If you are not playing a sport this winter, make sure you are working out regularly so that you can be in top shape for March 1st. If you are not sure what to do, come out to Fitness Club or speak to one of the coaches for some ideas on how to keep fit.

Here are some recent highlights from the southern hemisphere (SA v. NZL)
Enjoy!
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Meet in Mr. Ceizar's portable (1307) at the following times:

11:15 pm Bantam

11:30 pm Juniors

11:45 Seniors

Spread the word by telling your friends who are not on the email list or who haven't played before. We always need more bodies to keep the program successful.
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Here is some highlights from the Six Nations Final to get you excited for next season. :-)
Here are some fantastic tries. Watch how these players change their speed, run switches, and are aware of their teammates coming from depth. This is what we want to be able to do this season!
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Thanks for voting on whether we should redesign the Senior Rugby Jersey. The next step is to decide on a design. I have a couple of design ideas but would like some input from the team. Starting next week (Nov 2) stop by 3302 and check out a couple of options. The design that gets the most positive feedback will be what we will go with.
Note that there is a new poll on the right... Do we want to have black or white shorts?
Our second poll on whether to get track suits, warm up shirts, and hoodies seemed to be inconclusive with no single  item getting a majority of votes. Speak to me or Mr. Ciezar if you are especially passionate getting this.
SENIOR players from last season can also pick up a WCSSAA Championship Photo and OFSSA photo if they haven't received one yet from me in 3302.

cheers,
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