Fitzpatrick appointed Rugby Participation Officer for Waterford
Conall Fitzpatrick has been appointed as the Rugby Participation Officer role for Waterford.
Having been involved in Waterpark RFC for more than 10 years as a mini and youth coach and more recently as Club Community Rugby Officer (CCRO) for both Tramore RFC and Waterpark, I was recently appointed to the role of Rugby Participation Officer (RPO) for Waterford by Munster Rugby. As the job title suggests my remit is to increase participation in this great sport and I’m looking forward to ramping up my on pitch engagements across the county in the coming weeks. I’ll be joining the other Munster Rugby staff who are active in this part of the province, Joey Doherty who’s CCRO for Dungarvan RFC, Ólan Daly the East Munster Participation lead and Ben Swindlehirst, Rugby Development Officer for East Munster. This participation role is also being filled in Tipperary by Joe Sheehan with whom I’ll be comparing notes on a regular basis.
County Waterford is serviced by four clubs, Dungarvan RFC, Tramore RFC, Waterford City RFC and Waterpark RFC. All four clubs introduce the game to players, boys and girls, as young as 5 or 6, when they start their journey through minis rugby and beyond. The emphasis in minis rugby is playing for fun while learning the game and its skills. There are no competitions at this level and blitzes are played with participation and fun at their core. No results are recorded and there’s certainly no leagues or knock outs. Right from the start respect is taught, expected and held as a central to everything, respect for self, for teammates and coaches, respect for club, respect for opposition and respect for referees and officials. This past weekend I was delighted and greatly encouraged to be involved when 25 minis coaches from Waterford clubs and beyond were hosted by East Munster staff in Waterpark RFC to undergo a training course, designed to give them some of the tools required to coach at this level.
Three of our four Waterford clubs already have a long tradition of age grade rugby. Excitingly Tramore RFC, having existed as a minis only club for their 11 year history are very close to taking the leap into youth rugby themselves with ambition to field their first stand-alone U14 team in the coming seasons. Clubs compete both regionally and in province wide competitions with both Dungarvan and Waterpark fielding youths (boys) and girls teams. Players continue their development from U13 through to U18.5 at which time they graduate to adult rugby. For some that will mean U21s while others make their way straight into senior setups in their clubs.
In parallel to the clubs there’s also rugby available in some schools. I expect a lot of my time to be directed to supporting those schools already involved and introducing rugby to new schools. There are, as with a lot of school sports, inter-schools competitions but for those starting off from scratch the recommendation would be to get involved with the emerging schools programme. This programme offers schools players the opportunity to learn and develop their skills and game knowledge in a non-competitive environment, with a view to stepping up to the competitions over time.
I was honoured to be welcomed into a number of primary schools last year as part of the CCRO role and I’d like to expand on that this year. We hosted a number of very successful primary schools’ blitzes and one of the schools I worked with, Holy Cross National School, Tramore, even got the opportunity to go and play in an event in the Aviva Stadium – I’m not sure if Paul O’Connell will recovered from meeting them yet!
The season is underway across the four clubs so check out their social media channels for details on how to get involved. New players, at any level, are always welcome as are volunteers! The Bank of Ireland Munster Clubs competitions at U16 and U18.5 kick-off on the weekend of September 28th and I’d encourage you to go and support your local club. If you’re a teacher, principal, parents committee or bord of management member and you’d like to discuss bringing rugby to your school, I’m at your service. You can get in touch with me through your local club or directly on conallfitzpatrick@munsterrugby.ie
