East region: award nominations

East Region are now taking nominations for the Awards (listed below). Please give the persons name, club, award to be nominated for, and a few lines as to why they should win. Nomination form below... awards are won by the most nominations so get voting.

The Awards are:

SENIOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR

UNDER 17 PLAYER OF THE YEAR

UNDER 14 PLAYER OF THE YEAR

CLUB OF THE YEAR

MANAGER/COACH OF THE YEAR

THE UNSUNG HERO AWARD

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

COUNTY TEAM OF THE YEAR.

THE OUTSTANDING ACHIVEMENT AWARD

EAST REGION NOMINATION FORM

AWARDS 2006/07

	SENIOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
PLAYERS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON
	UNDER 17 PLAYER OF THE YEAR
PLAYERS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON
	UNDER 14 PLAYER OF THE YEAR
PLAYERS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON
	CLUB OF THE YEAR
CLUB NAME
REASON
	COUNTY TEAM OF THE YEAR.
COUNTY NAME
REASON
	MANAGER/COACH OF THE YEAR
PERSONS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON
	THE UNSUNG HERO AWARD
PERSONS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON
	VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
PERSONS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON
	THE OUTSTANDING ACHIVEMENT AWARD
PERSONS NAME
CLUB/S
REASON

RETURN TO

EAST RFUW, 27 Rainsthorpe, South Wootton, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 3UF

Alternatively, email to eastrfuw@btinternet.com

East Region presentation night: tickets on sale

VENUE: THE DUKES HEAD HOTEL, TUESDAY MKT PLACE, KINGS LYNN, NORFOLK PE30 1JS
DATE: FRIDAY 15^th JUNE 2007
TIME: 7.30PM FOR 8PM START (disco until 1am)
DRESS CODE: EVENING DRESS/BLACK TIE
TICKETS: £30 PER ADULT OR £25 FOR PERSONS 17 & UNDER.

The Tickets are now on sale, so hurry as the amount of tickets for sale are limited

EACH TICKET IS ALSO A DRAW NUMBER

Extra draw tickets available on the night at £1 per ticket.

I hope that you can make it. The night will be full of glitz, glam, tears of joy, fun and DANCING. Just think of the Oscars but as a more exclusive occasion.

PRESENTATION DINNER & DANCE 2007

Friday 15^th June 2007

LEAD NAME:

CLUB ASSOCIATED TO:

FULL ADDRESS:

POSTCODE:

CONTACT NO: MOBILE NO:

EMAIL ADDRESS:

NO OF TICKETS:ADULT£30.00 CHILD£25.00

TOTAL COSTS

NAME OF GUESTS (INCLUDE LEAD NAME ALSO)

ADULT

CHILD

East senior training: extra session

Following the senior region team's qualification for the third place play-off there will be an extra training on Saturday at Ipswich RFC. Training from 11am please arrive ready to start at 11am.

Address details:
Ipswich RFC
Humber Doucy Lane
Ipswich
IP4 3PZ

Directions:

• Leave the A14 at junction 53, then at roundabout take the 1st exit onto the A1156 (signposted Ipswich West and North)
• Continue forward onto Bury Road - A1156. Entering Ipswich
• At roundabout take the 2nd exit onto Bury Road - A1156 Meredith F/stn
• At mini-roundabouts turn left onto the A1214 (not shown) (signposted Woodbridge A12, Felixstowe A14)
• At Valley Road roundabout take the 2nd exit onto the A1214 (signposted Woodbridge A12, Felixstowe A14)
• At roundabout take the 2nd exit onto the A1214 (signposted Woodbridge A12, Felixstowe A14)
• Turn left onto Sidegate Lane West
• Continue forward onto Sidegate Lane
• Turn right onto Humber Doucy Lane
  

East region kit problems: details needed

It is reasonably safe to say that most recipients were less than bowled over with the kit they received on Sunday.

We know that there were no "beanies" at all, but other than that if your kit was incomplete or the wrong size or otherwise unsatisfactory please could you send details of your complaint to your team manager (Malcolm, Cathy or Tina) as soon as possible so that we can provide RFUW with one single definitive list of things that need putting right.

Women in refereeing

Dates for your diaries from Amanda Bate:

"Two ref courses the new ELRA, in the SE and E regions are being earmarked for women, though men can go too!

50% Discount Entry Level Referee Course for women. i.e £20!

The RFUW are subsidising women on the ELRA course as we are trying to get 200 new female refs, across the country.

The two day courses are being held at Reigate RFC on Saturdays 21st and 28th April and Saturday and Sunday 19th and 20th May at St Albans School (Pavillion and playing fields, at the back of Old Albanians RFC.)

The course is the standard RFU new Entry Level Referee Course and will qualify you to referee club and school games and step onto the refereeing ladder. At the end of the course it is hoped that you will join your local referee society and referee matches for men, women, girls and boys in your local community. Referee societies often have people who are prepared to act as mentors for new referees and will always allocate you to games you are comfortable covering.

Book in the usual way here or via your club - this is the application form for an individual booking and there is one for a group booking.

Castlecroft knows women are booking on these courses for £20, so just send a chq for £20!

If you have at least 10 women all wanting to do a refs course together, let me know…refs courses can be arranged for groups.

Fast Track Programme

This England women v Italy match, saw the first ever team of 3 women at Twickenham Stadium Refereeing. Through these courses and other events nationally we are looking for 6 talented women or girls to be selected to take part in a fast track scheme where they will get a personalised support courses throughout the year and will be assigned a personal mentor from the RFU Referee National Panel. These 6 women or girls will be selected because they have the potential (physically and mentally) to become an elite referee, and will have the opportunity to work towards refereeing in the Women’s World Cup 2010 and 2014, Women’s 6 Nations and will hopefully go on the referee in the men’s game at Level 5 and above. This is a great opportunity for any women or girls who enjoy rugby but may not be able to fulfil elite aspirations through playing and may consider elite refereeing as an alternative pathway. If you want further information about this please contact Amanda Bate a amandabate@RFU.com or David Rose, RFU RefDM Midlands davidrose@rfu.com

Back to Refereeing

If you know any women who are currently qualified as a referee but are not actively involved with their local society or refereeing for their club, we are running a Development Course at the London and South East Conference on the 16th of June (venue TBC). This course will look at giving women the skills they need in decision making, positioning, confidence and controlling the game, so they can confidently go out and referee within their societies. If you are interested in attending this course and want further details please email me on amandabate@rfu.com

National Women’s Refereeing Conference

The RFU and RFUW will also be holding a National Women’s Refereeing Conference on the 14th and 15th of July. The cost of the weekend is £25 and has workshops around female specific fitness, nutrition, lines of running, controlling the game, psychology and much more. There is also a formal dinner for all delegates. You must be a qualified female referee to attend. If you are interested in going on the mailing list to receive more information please email David Rose on davidrose@rfu.com

Female Referee Ambassadors

We have appointed 10 women nationally to act as Female Referee Ambassadors. Amongst these are Debbie Innes and Claire Daniels who were both the touch judges for last week’s 6 Nations clash at Twickenham. Their role is to work with schools, universities, clubs and counties to promote refereeing as a pathway for women and girls. If you would like the contact details of your local Ambassador please contact David Rose davidrose@rfu.com

The great Leicestershire hailstorm

Thanks to Siobhan Franklin's Dad, Paul, for this glimpse of what brought about the early end to East's U17 game against East Midlands on Sunday:

Problems with East website

False dawn. The East region website is again not accepting any new edits. All regional news will continue to appear here.

Herts Sevens Update

The number of sides now entered into the Under 17 Section of the Festival has risen to 14 as both Romford and Gidea Park Chix, and a combined Aylesbury & Milton Keynes & Chesham side have now confirmed their places. This leaves 2 remaining places at U17, with up to 8 U14 places still available.

Regional U14s @ East Mids: Before and after!

A sunny day in early spring ...
... becomes a cold day in winter as the snow and hail begins to fall...

... and that is before it REALLY came down. If anyone has any pictures of the end of the U17 game please send them in!

East U14s v East Midlands: Match report

U14 regional coach Simon Shutler reports:

Contrary to the RFUW website and email, the East U14's actually beat the East Midlands in another very cold day up north, and this is how...

East Captain Claire won the toss and elected to receive from the kick off. EM chose to play with a strong wind at their back in the first half and with the slope of the pitch favouring them. The East game plan in the first half was not to kick the ball away but keep it in hand and drive into the wind. From the kick-off they did this and kept possession and play around halfway. Unfortunately they turned the ball over and were penalised for handling on the ground. EM took a quick tap and were tackled, but East were penalised for not being 10m. EM took another quick tap and ran in to the corner to score.

Captain Claire gathered her team together and from the kick-off they recovered the ball and drove into the EM 22. From the resulting scrum Layla took the ball blind and Yas backing up was tackled just short of the line. Further East pressure caused EM to concede a penalty. East took the scrum option and Charlotte was able to run in and score out wide.

EM kicked off and again East kept the ball in possession on halfway, unfortunately they again conceded a penalty in the same position as before and a replay of the initial try happened in conceding a penalty being penalised for not being 10m and then seeing EM run into the corner again.

However, heads did not drop and from the kick-off the East recovered the ball, Anna made a break and found Alex, who held off an EM defender and headed for the line, to be brought down just short. Yas backing up took the pass to score.

The second half was a different game, East backs were much more fluent in their running and passing.A scrum on halfway saw the ball come left and Charlotte broke free to score her second try.

The East with the wind on their backs were able to retain possession and put pressure on the EM line. Stout defending kept them out, until the EM conceded a penalty in front of the posts. East elected to scrum and lined up single file behind it to confuse the defence. The move did not quite work as planned but the ball was quickly recycled for Sam to score.

East again worked the ball into the EM 22 and pressured the line, unfortunately they lost the ball under the posts and the EM countered moving the ball to their quick wing, who ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts.

East from the kick-off keep possession and wok the ball into the EM 22. From a resulting scrum the ball is worked right, Sam is stopped but the ball is recycled and passed out for Charlotte to again score in the corner.

A great result by the squad with some fantastic passages of play. The coaches will be working on some aspects of play before the next games but the girls did everything that was asked of them.

Herts Sevens update

There is the potential for some of the players from yesterday's East Region U17 verses East Midlands Region U17 game to play each other again (hopefully not in a hailstorm on May 20th!) as Kettering are confirmed as 12th U17 side to enter the Herts Festival. There are now just 4 places in the U17 section left.

East seniors miss out on final by narrowest margin

East seniors won their game against East Midlands today - but missed out on the final by only points difference, and will have to play their neighbours again in two weeks time (31st March)in a third place playoff at Wasps. The seniors were left to rue a last minute try conceeded to South East in an opening game they had othewise dominated - or maybe the luck of a draw that saw South take on two of the eventual bottom four teams and West Midlands three of the bottom five, while East had had to play (discounting themselves) two of the top four.

The final Senior table was as follows:

TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	DIF	BP	PTS
WEST MIDLANDS	3	3	0	0	96	5	91	1	16
SOUTH	3	2	1	0	43	20	23	0	13
EAST	3	2	0	1	43	31	12	2	13
EAST MIDLANDS	3	2	0	1	27	23	4	1	12
SOUTH EAST	3	2	0	1	34	36	2	0	11
NORTH WEST	3	1	0	2	39	39	0	2	9
THAMES VALLEY	3	0	2	1	34	41	-7	1	8
YORKSHIRE	3	1	0	2	18	41	-23	1	8
SOUTH WEST	3	0	1	2	15	82	-67	1	6
NORTH EAST	3	0	0	3	36	67	-29	2	5

It is proposed that from next year the new U18 championship will be based in the senior model instead of the Sun Alliance festival at Rugby School, which it is suggested will become an U15-only affair.

However, this year the juniors continue with a pattern of warm-up games leading to the final festival. Today the first warm-ups saw the U14s came back from conceeding an early try to beat East Midlands 25-15, while the U17s game was abandoned in the second half with East Midlands leading 19-5 when an unseasonal hail and snow strom turned the ground into something that looked like the front of a Christmas card.

Herts Sevens update

Letchworth, last years hosts, and Eastern Furies, a combined team from players in Norfolk and Suffolk Clubs have now confirmed their entries in both the U14 and U17 sections of the Herts Festival. There are now 11 teams entered in the U17 section (out of a maximum 16) and exactly half of the available places in the U14 section have been booked.
If any Club is intending to enter this tournament you are urged to enter soon as the U17 section, in particular, is nearing capacity.

New title, same great online magazine

A new issue of Rugby Player Magazine is now out. This is not a new publication, but the "DSM Rugby" magazine with a new title.

Its still an impressive publication, available only online, and totally free. The latest issue includes:

• Danielle Waterman column – Danielle reviews the RBS 6 Nations and previews England's Grand Slam game in Cardiff.
• Magnificent 7 Last-Minute Tries - with video links
• Power Play – Exeter Chief’s Kevin Barrett looks at modern power training techniques.
• Men's World Cup update – with this year’s men's RBS 6 Nations almost over, Adam Hathaway looks forward to the tournament coming up in France.

Herts Sevens Update

Reading and Aylesbury & Milton Keynes are the latest two clubs to enter both U14 and U17 teams into the Herts Festival. This means we are past the half-way point for the U17 section as nine teams out of a maximum 16 have now secured their places, whereas six sides are now confirmed for the U14 section.

The Festival will cater for all standards of Rugby as once the initial group stage has been decided, the tournament splits into the teams competing for the Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield at both age groups. Therfore all 16 teams in each section will have something to play for right until the end of the day.

Review recommends major changes to regional programme.

The recommendations of the Regional Programme Review have now been published - and there are some major changes planned, especially for the juniors.

At senior level the only major change comes in 2008/9 when seniors move to eight regions - effectively mirroring the RFU regions (so East will gain Middlesex and possibly lose Huntingdonshire - though the latter needs to be confirmed). In addition by the following year a national county structure is planned leading to closed trials - in other words the same as the junior system which came in this season.

For the juniors....

From next season the U18s will mirror the senior programme - ie. there will be no tournament at Rugby School, but instead three regional matches with the top four qualifying for a final and third place play-off. U15s will remain as they are, with two warm-up fixtures and the tournament.

This would inevitably mean that - instead of the two junior squads working together, sharing physio support, etc. - they will now be largely independent entities. It maybe that the U18s will have the same fixture and training programme as the seniors - that is not confirmed.

However before the adminsitrative and organisational implications of that sinks in there are even more changes planned for 2008/9.

In that year the U18s drop down to the eight RFU regions, as with the seniors BUT the U15s gain an extra region and will therefore run on a completely separate 12-team regional system. In practice this will not affect East/London North too much as it seems that even in the 12-team format the borders will be the same (ie. the U15s probably gain Middlesex as well) - the main areas of confusion will be in the new North East & Yorkshire, South, and South West regions which will "split" at U15 level while being "combined" at U18 and Senior.

Other reforms will be a nationally standardised trial procedure for closed trials, including a nationally agreed criteria for "wild cards".

Finally the regional programme will now be officially considered a "Talent Development" programme while the County Programme will be charges with promoting "Participation". What this means in practice - if anything - (and how it will be adminstered) is, at this stage, unclear.

Bumper bundle of RFUW news and competition information

... should be dropping on doormats and e-mail boxes shortly (or even already). The mailing gives information and entry forms for:

• National Sevens (Leighton Buzzard, 26/27 May)
• Regional and National 10s (Various venues, 28/29 April)
• League "intention to affiliate" forms (for senior clubs)
• Senior draft calendar
• Regional programme group review report

All of which will keep club adminstrators and managers happy for a few hours.

If you have not had the information most of it will also be on teh RFUW website by now.

Regional Tens: entries now open

Another thing that has slipped out is that entries are now open for the Regional Tens, whichare on the 28th (seniors) and 29th (junior) April.

Contrary to previous advice on the subject, entries forms are from RFUW who are setting the fees (£25 per team, plus a £50 deposit) but need to be sent to the appropriate venue (and cheques made payable to the hosts, it seems).

Full details on the RFUW website

National Sevens Update: forget everything you thought you knew!

No official announcements yet that I have seen but readers should note that the dates and venue for National Sevens 2007 will not be what you expected.

The sevens WILL be at Leighton Buzzard RFC in Bedfordshire.

The Adult Sevens will be a one-day competition this year on Sunday 27th April (not a two day event over the Saturday and Sunday, as in previous years)

The Junior Sevens will be held on Saturday 26th April (not the Bank Holiday Monday, as in previous years) and WILL include events for both U14s and U17s. Indeed it will be of some historic significance as it will be last day of rugby for these age groups.

National Sevens on the move?

Surprising news in a posting tucked away on the website of Leighton Buzzard RFC. It would appear that Harpenden are NOT hosting this year's sevens after all - apparently they are refurbishing both pitches and buildings at their ground.

However, although this says that Leighton Buzzard are taking over the hosting the dates given on their website are only those originally put by for the senior event. No news of the junior tournament, due to take place on the 28th May (Bank Holiday Monday).

And nothing to confirm any of this on the RFUW website - so you saw it here first!!