‘‘The club is excited at being able to support a new pathway for young girls as they look forward to their long term participation in the sport,’’ he says.
The first training session for 36 young players was held on Sunday morning at the clubs grounds in Kaiapoi. Some had travelled from as far afield as Kaikoura to be part of the two new teams. Under the guidance of coaches Brigette Higinbottom and Brad Thorpe, they donned their new strips. ‘‘We were only expecting only 10 girls to show when we put the call out last year, but we have been astounded with the response,’’ says Brad. ‘‘Enough young players have now signed and this will allow us to run two under 11 girls rugby teams - Kaiapoi in yellow and Rakahuri in red.’’ Brigette and Brad are both retired rugby players who coached a girls Under 7 ripper rugby team a few years ago.
Brad says they always wanted to see the age gap filled where girls drop away from rugby game when they turn eight.
‘‘Boys generally become more physical than most girls by 10 and with no other avenues until the U13 girls grade, there’s a (dead zone) and we feel rugby is losing these girls to other sports.’’
When they heard the Canterbury Rugby Football Union (CRFU) were starting an U11 midweek metro girls tournament, they decided to put the feelers out and see if they could round up a enough girls to enter a North Canterbury team.
‘‘At that point we were a stand alone venture,’’ says Brad,‘‘Lots of keen and eager players but no uniforms, no balls and no home.’’
He says Paul Keane at Saracens Rugby Club helped them with access to equipment and a field, and they held a couple of training runs late in 2022.
When the CRFU advised them metro teams probably wouldn't be willing to travel too far into North Canterbury from Christchurch to play home games they looked for options.
Then they received a call from Phil Sleeman at Kaiapoi Rugby who said the club would like to help.
‘‘ Kaiapoi have bent over backwards for us, they kindly provided the jerseys for the Kaiapoi team and thanks to Craig Mullan at the North Canterbury Rugby Sub Union (NCRSU) the Rakahuri team now also have new jerseys and kit.
The two teams will be hosting a tournament on Sunday, April 2 with a 10am kickoff at KRFC.
‘‘It will be great to see as many people come down as possible to support us.’’
