Otago Rugby Union eNewsletter

Editorial

Good afternoon Otago supporters & welcome to our weekly newsletter

A piece of rugby history will be on show in Alexandra during Queen's Birthday (Saturday 5th June). Several hundred players, volunteers and supporters will be part of the annual Otago Country Rugby Day, which this year is will be hosted by the Alexandra Rugby Club. It's bound to be an absolute rippa of a day so make sure you get down to Molyneux Park to catch all the action!!!

Otago Community Rugby Good Sorts: This week we sat down with a true Sharkie Mr Dave Conrad, to hear about his long and strong affiliation to the Dunedin RFC. It was a privilege to hear his story and we are stoked we can acknowledge all that he does for his club. He has taken on numerous voluntary roles over the years, you name it, he has done it. Good on ya Dave, it is people like you who keep our rugby clubs alive. Check out our episode on Dave by clicking here. Dunedin RFC will be celebrating their 150th Anniversary this Queen's Birthday weekend.

Something brand new is about to be unleashed on the South Island as Under 85s rugby enters brand new territory. Introducing "The Carisbrook Bush Pigs". To help test the appetite for the grade here in Dunedin, we have assembled a Metropolitan Team representing the clubs in the Dunedin area. The hope is that next year this will gain momentum and clubs will enter their own team into the national or potentially local competition.

Last Sunday Otago Rugby and the Highlanders travelled through to Queenstown to run one of our four Development Combines for our U16-U19 Boys and Girls. The day was a complete success despite the threat of bad weather! Check out more on this below.

Reminder: This 2021 club season, we have put together a wee Coach of the Month initiative to push out to both Metro & Country clubs, for both junior and senior coaches. Nominations are to be sent through to Aaron Callaghan each month. A winner will be announced on Facebook and will score a season pass to the 2021 Otago home games! If you have a coach your think deserves recognition email aaron.callaghan@orfu.co.nz

Our Website has had a makeover and we couldn't be happier about it! Go check it out for yourself, for all things Otago Rugby click here.

Interesting Reads from Otago Daily Times:

Topp Cup

Central Development vs Southern Development

The development matches are always hard fought with both sides housing players keen to prove themselves at the next level. Both sides have got a fantastic mix of youth and experience and will throw everything they have into the match which is a curtain raiser for the big dance to follow.

Central Prems vs Southern Prems

Southern Region have not had their hands on the Topp Cup since they gave it away in 2017. Central have made the most of their chances and have been worthy victors. Both sides are extremely competent, and the match will be hard fought from start to finish. Southern have the welcome addition of West Taieri to bolster their numbers which stands them in good stead. Central won’t want to give up the Topp Cup easily and recent form suggests they go in as favourites.

Metro Match of the Round - Taieri vs Green Island

Well here we go…. The Battle of the Saddle for 2021 returns with Green Island taking a very impressive 1 nil advantage into the second clash of the year out at Peter Johnstone Park. While this is certainly a highlighted fixture for the Green Island and Taieri faithful, there is even more on the line for the fans with the Bezett Trophy/Robb Cup up for grabs and also a very special moment for the Taieri Club as Brodie Hume celebrates his 100th match for the Eels – a true club stalwart. There are mouth-watering matchups riddled across the park but it has to be the battle of the loose forwards that shines in this encounter as the GI trio of MacEwan, Haig and Dylan Nel go up against the gritty Hume, Ferguson and Fischli who will be at each other till the 80th minute sounds. This one is most certainly too tough to call, Taieri will want to make sure they get up for Hume’s 100th while Green Island have been in some sparkling form in 2021 with some very silky displays of attacking rugby. I suggest you get a good seat on the PJ Park sideline because this one has all the makings of an absolute dooooosey.

5 Tips for Better Player Engagement

One of the common questions I get from coaches around the region is “How do I keep my players engaged?”

Before we continue, I would like to precede this discussion with a gentle reminder…

Current thinking is that the full adult brain only comes online between 18-32 years of age. Unfortunately for myself that may have even been a little bit later, but that is a story for another day.

Whether you are the first or second child born, male or female, genetics and hosts of other environmental factors will influence where we fall on the spectrum.

Step 1 could be to manage our own expectations. Some of those engagement and behaviour problems could just be a natural consequence of where our players are at developmentally.

With that being said, here we go…

Tip 1 – Know Your Players

Take the time to understand WHY your players are at training and play the game. You can use this information, when you see behaviour starting to decline have a quick word around their motivational driver.

Through your conversation with “player A” you discover that they want to play for Otago, Highlanders and the All Blacks.

When behaviour is starting to slip from “player A” you can have a quick word and ask the question

“Do you think the All Blacks muck around at training or do you think they would be focussed?”

“Is your behaviour taking you closer to your goal of playing for the All Blacks”.

There are many quick questions along the same lines, but they all stem from understanding your player at the next level.

Tip 2 – Let Your Players Set the Standards

This could be done at the start of the season or at the start of each session.

Ask your players what a great session will look like? How will it feel? What is excellent, acceptable, and unacceptable.

Throughout the session you can check in with your group, or with players individually.

Coach: “Where are we at team?”

Team: “Unacceptable”

Coach: “OK what will it take to get back to acceptable?”

Team: “Increased intensity”

Coach: “Can we do that?”

Team: “Yes coach”

You could also use this strategy to challenge your players.

Coach: “Good work team. Can we lift it to excellent for one minute?”

A great example of when things are really humming is when your players start driving this process themselves.

Tip 3 – Play the Game First

On my travels a typical training session looks something like this

Warmup
One or two drills
Split backs and forwards
If you are well behaved, we can play a game at the end!

Quick question.

How often have you had a player run up to you before training and say, “hi coach, can we do that great drill?”

I suspect the answer is never, players sign up to play the game.

How do you feel when people do not listen to you?

Maybe the session could look like

Quick warm up then some sort of game. You could modify the rules depending on goal of the session.
Hit a drill, then back to the game.
Another drill or split backs and forwards, then finish with another game.

Great for learning and engagement! Win-win!

Tip 4 – Time on Task

The longer players are standing around the higher probability that things are going to full apart.

Challenge yourself to speak for under 45 seconds at a time. If you are coaching Rippa then this time could be more like 20 seconds. The legendary basketball coach John Wooden used to set himself the challenge of seeing how little he could speak during a session.

Give minimal instruction / coaching points and get moving. Then coach what you see.

Something else to consider is long queues on cones, this is also a recipe for disaster. An easy solution here could be to split groups in two. Same drill just different stations. Increased time involved means less time to muck around.

Tip 5 – Challenge Your Players

You want to try and hit the sweet spot of learning. If the drill is too difficult the player goes into overload / fear mode, no learning occurs. He / she is just trying to survive.

If the drill is too easy players get bored. Best case scenario they go through motions but are not learning anything, worst case scenario they start disrupting the group.

We need to stretch our players just out of their comfort zone, this will help with learning and engagement.

I hope these tips are helpful, give them a go and let me know how you get on!

Will there be an instant change? Probably not, but over time you just never know what can happen.

As a final note, we should always remember that we never know the full background story of what life looks like for our players or people in general. Although at times it’s not easy, trying to stay empathetic is always a good mind set to take into any session.

Let me know if there are any specific questions you’d like answered on the coaching front at aaron.callaghan@orfu.co.nz

Keep up the great work!!!

Cheers, Azza

SCHEDULE

10am: Junior Club Rugby

11am: Secondary School Girls – OC Kawarau vs OC Clutha

12:45pm: Central Development vs Southern Development

2:30pm: Central Premiers vs Southern Premiers – Topp Cup Challenge

TOPP CUP

The Topp Cup was first presented to the sport in 1913 and played for most years since then, apart from during the war years and 2020 due to Covid disruption.

Central holds the Topp Cup, which it won last time it was played for in Lawrence 18 to 15.

HISTORY

The name of the Cup. In July 1912 the Tuapeka sub union resolved to accept the offer of a silver cup to be played for in the Country competition. The cup being donated by Mr Alex Topp, proprietor of the Grand hotel in Roxburgh.

The cup was to be played for by, and at the venue, Tuapeka, Roxburgh. Vincent, Clyde. Maniototo, Ranfurly. South Tuapeka, Lawrence. Tapanui, Tapanui.

The first challenge for the Topp cup was held in Roxburgh between Tuapeka and Tapanui (Eastern) on the 30th August 1913. Tuapeka won 26 0.

There is a huge gap on the cup with no holders registered between 1931 and 1947. Games were played but no winners recorded. This gap may be part of the reason the history of the cup was confused. The Jopp family were heavily involved with rugby and cricket in Otago Country and the story grew that the Topp cup was donated by Andrew Jopp and a mistake at the engravers led to it being the Topp cup. This was the believed history as the Country board prepared for the centennial of the cup in 2013.

After an article in the ODT outlining the understood history of the cup, Ray Goodall of Clyde did some research of his own. He uncovered minutes from the Tuapeka sub union and articles from the Mt Benger Mail that showed the true origin of the “Topp Cup”.

We may never know what happened. It is highly likely there was a Jopp cup for rugby or cricket and the different cups got confused over the years.

Results – last 10 years

2008: Central 9-6

2009: Southern 29-6

2010: Southern 16-9

2011: Southern 34-5

2012: Draw 18-18

2013: Southern 38-12

2014: Southern 31-22

2015: Central 30-8

2016: Southern 37-24

2017: Central 36 – 24

2018: Central 29 - 24

2019: Central 18-15

2020: Covid-19 - Not played

For those who cannot attend the event, keep up to date with content throughout the day from either the Central Otago Rugby or Southern Region Rugby Facebook pages

“The Carisbrook Bush Pigs” have been training together for the past few Sundays and are extremely excited for the trip up to South Canterbury to face the Pleasant Point Mud Dogs in Round 1 of the NZR U85s Barbarians Cup. It’s a winner takes all affair with a win guaranteeing a place in the next round against the winner of the Canterbury region. Check out the teamed named to play next week below!

WHO: Pleasant Point Mud Dogs

WHERE: Pleasant Point Domain

TIME: 2.00pm

DATE: Monday 7th June

Last Saturday the 29th May, we hosted our Women & Girls Day at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Having the roof was more than ideal due to the wet weather conditions outside.

We were fortunate enough to have three Black Ferns there to assist with the event, Kendra Cocksedge, Kelsie Willis and Rosie Kelly.

The day involved catered junior rugby games, a learning session for the secondary schools girls and it was capped off with a women's premier club game, Alhambra Union vs Big River Country. It was an intense and tightly contested match with Alhambra-Union snatching the win in the very last play of the game. Final score 34-31.

A massive thank you to all those who helped make Women & Girls Day possible and to the Stadium for hosting the event. It was great to host a day that purely focused on strengthening the skills of our local female players in hopes to grow the Women's game within Otago. We hope we can do the same again in 2022.

The day is aimed at providing athletes with and understanding of New Zealand Rugby’s Development program with an introduction to High Performance. Athletes got an insight into Mental Skills, Nutrition, Strength and Conditioning and rugby specific skill development.

We were also very fortunate to have a group of players from the Highlanders assist on the day with the delivery of skills and a Q&A of what it takes to play at that level. Getting an understanding of the off field life balance and also wellbeing were a huge take away for all that attended.

Thanks to all that attended and assisted on the day.

Next Development combine is scheduled for the 20th June and Logan Park.

The Otago Rugby Union is acting as an ambassador for Veo. We are using the camera's for developing our representative players and match officials as well as allowing our clubs and schools to borrow the camera's. If a club or a school likes the camera, they can then contact Veo direct and make a purchase of the hardware and a monthly licence to use their software. As a partnership, the Otago Rugby Union receives a small fee, and the club or school receives a discount on the recommended retail price.

For more information about Veo and their camera, click here.

Or, if you would like to book a call from the Veo experts, click here.

HOW DOES MY CLUB OR SCHOOL BOOK A CAMERA?

Email Paul Thompson: paul.thompson@orfu.co.nz

Match Day Programme - Metro, Central & Southern Region

Secondary Schools First XV Match Day Programme