Uni_Problems Solutions_V2
- 2. This booklet is a guide to help you develop your University Rugby Club and make the most of RFU Support on offer. There will be support available from your University Students Union and Sports Development Team. There is an RFU University Rugby Development officer (URDO) who can help you - get in contact with them to see how they can help! The focus of our RFU support is to help you grow and sustain your University Rugby Club helping more men & women play rugby in different forms. This booklet looks to give guidance when facing some of the challenges you may have when taking over the rugby club and help identify who can help you with support and solutions. Well done for stepping up to try to make a positive difference to your Club! UNI SUPPORT GUIDE - PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS INFO
- 3. Retention & development of players “Our university has lots of players wantingto play but we only have 1 or 2 BUCS team and lots of players can’t get games”. “We don’t really have any links with local clubs and some players would like to get games at the weekend”. “We have new players that need quality coaching to help build their confidence but we don’t have a coach”. “We could do with some specialist coaching e.g. front row”. “So many players signed up and now we don’t have enough coaches”. “Our opposition has pulled out” or “we need more fixtures between the Merit League Festivals and don’t know how to get them”. South East University and London University Merit Leagues offer regular opportunities to play against similar standard opposition. Teams play with the numbers and rules that they want without the pressure of regulations and can play as much or as little as they like, without anycost of entry. Teams referee themselves. Game Finder helps university players to link with local clubs and find weekend games. A team of Community Rugby Coaches is available to support your developing players. We prefer to work alongside existing coaches but if that’s not an option we can deliver some sessions and also help to get your players on courses. We can put you in touch with local clubs and signpost coach education courses e.g. Scrum Factory. Join the London University Fixture Exchange where you can connect with all local universities that are also looking for fixtures. London University Fixture Exchange. Funding for Level 2 Referee places. Kit, CRC support. Game Finder Stash, funding for travel. Coaching, mentoring and funding for courses. Facebook page. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE RETENTIONAND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED “WE CAN PUT YOU IN TOUCH WITH LOCAL CLUBS AND SIGNPOST COACH EDUCATION COURSES”
- 4. “We don’t have a coach for Wednesday afternoons” or “We don’t have a coach for our team this season”. “Our university isn’t releasing students early enough to get to games” or “ we can’t play away games because we all have lectures on Wednesday afternoons”. “Our university won’t fund travel to non BUCS events so we can’t attend Merit league festivals or away friendly fixtures”. “We have signed up lots of new players but the first games aren’t until 4 weeks’ time and we are worried we may lose them”. “We have some players that want to just play touch rugby”. “Lots of our players are leaving at the end of the year and we want to help them find a club”. “We want to go on tour at the end of the season to build a good team spirit”. We can help your university to advertise for a new coach using our communication channels. Simply work with your Student Union and create an advert. We can also put you in touch with your local club who might help. If you let us know we can raise the issue with your SU, however this is something that you will need to address as an entire team. We have a small amount of funding to support any new teams that you have created to get to these types of events. We can also help you with financial planning and generating income. Come along to one of our Freshers’ festivals where they will receive coaching, and informal games where you can watch your new players for the first time. We can also run girls development sessions. We can either signpost your players to their local O2 Touch centre, or we could look at setting up an O2 Touch centre at your university. We will ask you for all of the details of the leaving students so we can help them find clubs when the leave. We can put you in touch with England Rugby Travel who may be able to help you find a good deal. Advertising and help with selection if needed. Support your club to raise the issue. Funding and guidance. Coaching, mentoring. £1,000 per year for running an O2 Touch centre. Leavers forms. ERT details. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE RETENTIONAND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED
- 5. “We want to stand out at Freshers’ Fayre and look professional so we get more sign ups.” “We struggle to recruit and retain players from Freshers’ fayre through until the first games.” “We know we will get lots of signups but we don’t have a Merit team captain responsible for leading the new team and increasing participation.” We can provide you with posters and table- top banners and give you advice before your fayre. We will help you to identify what you can offer new players of all types e.g BUCS rugby, social rugby, touch rugby, women’s rugby. Also consider recruiting referees and coaches to help your club. We can use our CRCs to help coach new players. We also run Freshers Festivals with development sessions, along with opportunities to play other players of similar standards. We can give you guidance on running your first sessions and selecting players. Each university needs to recruit a captain who will lead the merit team. They are critical in helping new players feel welcome and bringing them together to play games. Promotion resources. Guidance. CRC, Freshers festivals, development sessions. Selection process support. Guidance from URDO and CRC. Stash for merit captains-tbc. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED Recruitment “WE WILL HELP YOU TO IDENTIFY WHAT YOU CAN OFFER NEW PLAYERS”
- 6. “We don’t have enough coaches to coach all of our players and teams”. “We have an experienced coach leading our university how can we ensure they continue to get better?”. We want teams to have a suitably experienced and qualified coach and will support any coaches’ development by helping them to find and fund a course and then help them improve when they are back in the university coaching. Key courses are Rugby Ready, Scrum Factory and Level 2 coaching the XVa- side game. We can also help in the short term with CRC support. Your local Constituent Body runs coach education workshops with high profile coaches often leading sessions. The RFU run Continual Personal Development courses focusingon specific areas of the game. Consider writing CPD attendance into your coach’s contract and that they must be licensed as a coach. Funding, CRC mentoring. Delivery of coach education courses. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE COACHES SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED Coaches
- 7. “Our referee has pulled out and we don’t have one, can you help?”. “We want to play in the merit league but we don’t have a referee to bring with us”. Local Referee Societies are the main source of referees. If your referee has pulled out we are unlikely to find one for you. However, anyone can referee a game as long as they feel confident and happy to referee. Both universities need to agree the solution if the home team is happy to appoint that person. It is preferable to have a fully qualified official and we encourage all referees to attend a Refereeing the XVa-side game Level 2 course. We are committed to helping to recruit, train and develop referees and will provide funding and guidance to anyone wanting to become a referee. Due to the informal nature of the merit league just bring someone happy and confident to referee. If you are struggling don’t worry, other teams may bring someone or we will have CRC support on hand to referee. Over the course of the season we will expect you to find a suitable person toreferee. We will let you know about the dates of the courses for your referees to attend and we will fund the places. Funding for courses. CRC mentoring. Funding for courses, CRC support, Mentoring. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE REFEREES SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED Referees
- 8. “We are the newly elected presidents of our club and want to support our university to be the best it can be and provide direction for the club”. “We need more volunteers to help run events”. “We have done lots of great work this year growing the size and quality of the club, but we are concerned about how to sustain it when we leave and RFU funding is phased out”. We run leadership training for new and existing Presidents and Vice Presidents and, indeedanyone with leadership potential. We will keep in touch all year to ensure that we help you to plan, deliver, achieve and review your aims. We will get all university club leaders together to share ideas, reward your efforts, and tell you about new ideas to help your club improve through regional forums. Universities need more people doing less work and we can give you advice on how to recruit more people to help you and provide you with template role descriptions for you and your volunteers to adapt. We also have a limited amount of stash to give away for the best volunteers to help keep them motivated and reward their efforts. We can help your club to build a picture of how to continue the success through providing guidance on budgeting, fundraising, evidencing your successes, identifying opportunities and influencing key decision makers. Student Leadership Training. University Rugby development Plan. Student Forums. Guidance and Role descriptions. Provide stash. Guidance. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE VOLUNTEERSAND GOVERNANCE SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED Volunteers and Governance
- 9. “Our university training facilities are really poor” e.g. there is not enough space for us to train or the flood lights don’t work well enough”. “Any time it rains our pitches become waterlogged and unplayable and our games are postponed”. Address this with your Student Union first as they may offer alternative areas to train. We can help you find alternative training facilities by putting you in touch with your local clubs. We can provide assistance for universities to access facility improvement grants. Have a backup pitch in case it rains heavily, maybe at a local club. Build a good relationship with the grounds man to get him on side, try giving him some stash! If your problem persists your groundsmen can register with groundsmenconnected@rfu.com. to have direct access to a network of groundsmen, along with Twickenham’s Head Groundsman and get the advice they need to help your pitch improve. They will also be able to apply for grants and take advantage of online training tools. Club links and guidance on facility grants. Guidance and support. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE FACILITIES SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED Facilities
- 10. “We want to build links with our local club but don’t know how”. “We are really keen on volunteering in the community but need some help to find opportunities.” We can put you in touch with your local club so that you can build a relationship to benefit your players and their club. We also have the Game Finder programme (see retention). We can help find your volunteers opportunities to volunteer in local clubs, schools and colleges and help fund your coach education needs (see coaching and refereeing). Also link in with your university volunteer coordinator. Guidance. Find opportunities to volunteer. KEY AREA UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE CLUBLINKS SOLUTIONS TO HELP RFU SUPPORT OFFERED Club links