Weight-restricted grade a likely hot potato

Playing the game: Darius Kiwara, from YMP, tries to beat the Waikohu defence in the Poverty Bay under-11 grade last year. Picture by Paul Rickard

JUNIOR rugby will be discussed at a public meeting in Gisborne next week to help the Poverty Bay rugby union decide how it will run junior competitions this year.

The Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union board wants feedback on whether junior grades should be focused on participation, development or performance.

One likely point of debate is whether a weight-restricted under-13 grade should be retained.

It has been in place for the past two years but is the only weight-restricted grade, as the others are determined by player age.

In the first year, the weight limit was set at 56 kilograms and that was adjusted last year to 52kg.

With no u12 grade, smaller children aged 12 and 13 play in the weight-restricted grade and bigger players, in the u13 open grade.

Feedback about the concept has been mixed but the union's junior advisory board kept faith with it last year to give it more time to succeed.

Whether a participation model should be applied to all junior rugby may be another point of debate.

From 2018, children in the u10 grade played round robins, with no finals, recording of scores or points tables, in line with the younger grades.

More than 1000 children play rugby in the Poverty Bay junior grades.

Administrators ran a 10-week season last year that fell within schools' Term 2.

The rugby union had raised concerns about the suitability of Waikirikiri Park for junior rugby — expressing dissatisfaction with the changing-rooms building there and perceived risks to children's safety resulting from toilet entrances being out of sight of the playing fields — but chose to stick with the Kaiti ground.

The meeting will be held at the OBM clubrooms on Wednesday from 5.30pm.

Coaches, parents, children and “anyone interested in the junior rugby competition” have been invited, but people have been asked to register for the event on the union's Facebook page.