March has been a busy month with finalising the competition draw and meetings with various sub-committees.
Junior Youth Advisory Committee (JYAC)
Mark Pickard has taken on the role of Junior Referee Coordinator and Development within the Referees Association whereby he will take a lead in the recruitment and development of Junior Referees (18 and under). He wants to visit Clubs on training nights where there is already interest from young people to consider refereeing.
Rugby Union SA have engaged the Sammy D Foundation to roll out the “Monkey See – Monkey Do” education program to all South Australian Clubs, which will be free of charge to Clubs – in return, the expectation is that Clubs make the most of the opportunity and have as many juniors attend the program on a training night, as possible.
Proposed 2021 Junior Finals Structure will be a 2-week structure, and Junior Grand Final day to be separate to Seniors
RUSA will not consider dispensations down in 2021 unless compelling and/or extenuating circumstances can be demonstrated
- All assessments from coaches are sent to the Competition Manager for Final Approval.
- The assessing coach is only providing a recommendation – a player is not approved/cleared to play in dispensated age-grade until the Competition Manager approves
Single Age-Grade 2021 outcome was to plan Friday evening U9 and U11 participation (non-competition) opportunities to play with 4 occasions during the 2021 season, approx. 1 per month, in geographically dispersed locations
Juniors-Specific Competition Rules revisited with the Mercy Rule from 2020 edited rule to read
- Scoring stops in app and scoreboard at the point the match reaches mercy rule
- App only kept active for recording incidents/injuries. No further not scoring to continue
If you would like to discuss any of the above information, your first point of contact is your club representative:
- Adelaide University: Matt Steemson & Gareth Thomas
- Barossa: Lainie Cozzitorto
- Brighton: Robin Morgan
- Burnside: Kat van Dieman & Phil Doherty
- Elizabeth:
- Old Collegians: Michael Manuel & Nate Sos
- Onkaparinga: Matt Whitton
- Port Adelaide:
- Southern Suburbs: Matt Schapel
- Woodville: John Colley
- Referees Association: Mark Pickard & Mike Hayes
Competition Advisory Committee (CAG)
Spacequake Sports are locked in as the Livestream Provider in 2021. 1 Premier Grade match per round will be live streamed with RUSA having 2 additional matches per round videoed and analysed via Hudl – this will feed into Coach/ Referee Development activity. Clubs have the opportunity to have additional games streamed on the same day when Spacequake are currently at their club. There is an additional cost to clubs for these games.
RUSA Lottery 2021 will have a grand prize of a Kia Stonic (5-seat compact SUV) which will be featured on ground at each Livestream match. There is the ability for Clubs to purchase ticket books for sale at their own venue.
Competition Draw Concerns with occasions when their opposition Premier and Reserve grade have a BYE, and therefore potential/perceived potential for the opposition Third Grade to be “stacked”, making for an unfair match (i.e. not genuine third grade v third grade). General agreement and understanding that third grade will be third grade, save for when back-filling would otherwise be required (e.g. didn’t have trained props in third grade, or player returning from injury etc)
Clubs need to ensure their Team Officials are behaving appropriately in the Coaches box. If they continue to walk out of their box along the sideline, or shout inappropriate comments to the Match Officials of the game, there is potential to remove the Team Officials outside the playing enclosure.
If you would like to discuss any of the above information, your first point of contact is your club representative:
- Adelaide University: Matt Mooney
- Barossa: Alan Bland & Paul Brown
- Brighton: Jayne Fishwick & Richard Wasley
- Burnside: Phil Doherty & Tom Hankey
- Elizabeth: Dave Zeelen
- North Torrens:
- Old Collegians: Dave Phillips & Danny McCartan
- Onkaparinga: Matt Whitton
- Port Adelaide:
- Southern Suburbs:
- Woodville: Greg Warnecke & Peter Brown
- Referees Association: Phil Jones
