old rIshworthians
rufc
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Old Rishworthians
RUFC
Rishworthians look
back on a decade of success
Old Rishworthians are enjoying their most successful
spell in the club’s history. This season the 1st XV finished
7th in Yorkshire 2, their highest ever finish since the
leagues started and the 2nd XV recorded back to back
promotions in the Yorkshire Merit League finishing as
champions of the West/Aire Wharfe Merit league.
In the junior section the under 16s had a great season
losing only one game, the Yorkshire Cup Final 5-15 to
York, the under 15s only lost 5 games and were Yorkshire
Bowl finalists losing to Sheffield 0-19 and the under 13s
started unbeaten through September/October, then lost
shape in November/ December losing 5 games before
losing just one game in 2015.
However back in the late 1990s all was not well, the
number of senior teams had dwindled from three plus a
vets to just the 1st XV by 2002. Struggling in the bottom
tier of the Yorkshire leagues with no 2nd XV, recruiting
players was proving to be difficult with five other rugby
union clubs plus rugby league clubs in Halifax. The only
solution left was to form a junior section and develop
our own players for open age rugby.
During 2004 the junior section was formed, with a
view to start playing regular fixtures the following
season. During the close season a development plan
was produced with a goal to create a full mini/junior
section running teams from under 7 to under 17 within
ten years.
We recruited some under 16 pupils who played rugby
league at school to have a go at junior rugby union. They
started training at the club with a view to building an
U17s side for the 2005-06 season. A number of existing
and former club members plus parents from the
community had younger children interested in playing
tag rugby.
Initially there were only a handful of youngsters but
this quickly grew so that by the end of the season 2004-05
regular fixtures were being played at U7 and U8 levels. In
the second season we were ahead of plan, the minis were
running 3 sides, under 7’s, under 8’s and under 9’s and in
the juniors we were running under 15 and under 17 teams.
The 2006-07 season will be remembered for the
impact of the junior section to slowly bear fruit and all
we needed was a good player/coach to complete the
jigsaw. Jamie Bloem, ex Halifax RLFC was available
and took on the role in 2007-08. By Christmas the 1st
XV were unbeaten in the league and club records
were being broken. At the end of the season they
were champions of Yorkshire 5, unbeaten and scored
a club record of 1039 points. In the junior section we
were running teams from under 6-11 and under 14-16.
36 Issue 08