Rugby: Bay is fourth biggest in country

Kele Lasaqa makes a break for Greenpark School v Ohope at the EastPack Baywide Rippa Rugby World Cup played at Paengaroa in May.

Bay of Plenty has passed Waikato as the fourth biggest rugby union in New Zealand in terms of player numbers.

New Zealand Rugby data showed a two per cent overall increase to lift Bay of Plenty above 10,000 players to go past Waikato and be just 500 players behind third-placed Wellington.

Bay of Plenty Rugby's operations manager Neil Alton says growth in under-13 aged players was the decisive factor in moving past Waikato.

"That is both through our club system, Saturday morning rugby and a couple of initiatives that we have been growing in year round rippa rugby and schoolgirl rugby," Alton said.

"At secondary school level we got a small gain again this year in playing numbers, which was a tick for us as nationally secondary school numbers aren't increasing.

"Our sevens programme is probably second to none. The number of teams we have got playing in our Baywide tournaments at school level and even at club level is probably the most in the country, which we are proud of."

Extending coaching programmes into Central and Eastern Bay of Plenty has made a real difference at the crucial grassroots level of the sport.

"We have had regional rugby managers in place now for only seven or eight months but Mark Seymour and Brendon Webby, at Eastern Bay and Central Bay respectively, have made some really positive impacts in those areas this year," Alton said.

"Both of them have managed to get sevens modules up and running which is really positive for them and is something that we want to do. We want to grow the season of sevens so people can play it on a more regular basis.

"Mark and Brendon work really closely with our Te Waiariki programme. Bay of Plenty has got the highest number of Maori rugby players of any province so Maori rugby is important to us. This year we started Te Waiariki under-17 and under-19 teams and we went to the Te Hiku o te Ika tournament. The under-19s won the tournament and under-17s were third. So we got great buy-in from those kids in those regions who may have missed out on other rep avenues but with Te Waiariki they get to wear the Bay jersey."

Other successes for Bay rugby have been in referee recruitment, a new Colts grade to be expanded in 2016 and in the women's game.

Bay of Plenty's women's club competition is the largest in the country.