NSW Junior Rugby Union
With the impact of COVID-19 having a massive effect on Representative rugby across both club and schools pathways in NSW in 2020 - no age group felt this more than the Under 18 age group whom were having their last official year in Juniors rugby.
Whilst a number of schools associations managed to get some form of competitions going (GPS, CAS & ISA) - there were others (CHS, CCC & AICES) that once the Representative programs were cancelled were left with basically zero rugby exposure at all for 2020.
On the Club front a similar scenario played out where most Zones or Districts managed to get a competition up and running - but there was still no Representative pathway left in 2020. *Note - just to clarify when we talk about club players we are referring to ANY U18 player that is competing in Shute Shield colts, NSW Suburban Colts, SJRU Opens, NSW Country Rugby/Colts or CJRU U18 competitions.
This meant that a number of school leavers (U18s) would potentially miss out on their final year highlights of potentially pushing for selection into the traditional NSW GEN BLUE teams. NSW Juniors President Ben Gregory & NSWRU Head of Talent Andrew Cleverley hatched a plan to make sure we could offer something by way of a pathway for these players (particularly the associations that had zero rugby options for 2020). Thus the GEN BLUE U18 trials idea was formed and on the 1st November we saw huge numbers of players (in pretty wet conditions) converge on TG Milner in Sydney & Marcellin Park in Maitland. These players were trialing for the U18 GEN BLUE Sydney team and the U18 GEN BLUE Country team.
These teams were selected and are listed below - they will compete in a GEN BLUE Sydney vs Country game at Camden Rugby Park (1.00pm) - from here an U18 GEN BLUE NSW Juniors team will be selected.
To compliment this process and be inclusive, NSW GEN BLUE selected a number of players from GPS, CAS & ISA associations and ran a camp at Daceyville in the October school holidays - from here a GEN BLUE NSW Schools select XV was chosen. This team will play against the U18 GEN BLUE NSW Juniors team on the 15th November at Daceyville.
We acknowledge that this 2020 system hasn't been perfect and some players will have been missed in the process- but the NSW Rugby staff have done exceptionally well over COVID (in very tough circumstances) to even be able to offer something substantial to this age group. We'd like to thank Andrew Cleverley and Matt Evrard for this & hope that 2021 is back to regular format.
