Women’s Rugby Teams: Laid Out

This past weekend I attended the Youth Rugby Development Conference held this year in Atlanta, Georgia. Aside from the phenomenal time I had with all the ruggers, I had the pleasure of listening to numerous presentations that I know will positively impact my career; not only as a coach but also as a rugby player. Of all the presentations I listened to, the one that stuck out the most in my mind was the presentation given by Pete Steinberg. Steinberg currently coaches the Women’s Eagles Team and discussed “Coaching the Women’s Game”.

In my experience as a player, I always had imagined it would be difficult to coach women given the fact that we all seem to be a bit stubborn (and let’s face it, dramatic). However, Steinberg insists that if you can coach women, you can coach men. The likelihood that the occurrence will be successful the other way around is significantly low. This being because men and women do think differently and should not be coached the same.

Steinberg says that practices should consist more of games and entertaining activities as opposed to structured drills. After all, the best way to learn rugby is to play, right? In order to keep women engaged in the game of rugby, you have to make it interesting and entertaining; this way you get both your skilled players and your newer players involved and growing together. For example, a hearty game of keep away secretly works on passing abilities, touch rugby works a strong, flat defense and in a confined space will force steep back lines.

In the discussion of different ways to structure practice toward the goals of women’s teams and female athleticism, we consistently came across the deeply rooted issue of lack of players. Not only are numbers hard to come by, but keeping girls consistently coming out to play is as equally as difficult. In my experience, the lack of retaining girls has had an impact on most I’ve heard of. Games are frequently cancelled due to lack of numbers and teams tend to die out as quickly as they formed. Think about it, at the beginning of season you’ll have thirty or so girls come out to practice but about three or four weeks into your season, you’re having to move the forwards to the back line.

To combat the serious issue of retention, Steinberg suggests a few incentives for those playing. He suggests that for every vet that works with a rookie, their dues be lowered some based on the effort put forth by the vet. The vet can work one on one with their rookie, go to the gym with them, eat, help with school work, etc. This may ease some of the cliques within your team and make your rookies feel more at home. There’s no quicker way for you to lose girls than for them not to feel a part of the team. He also prescribes that rookies have to attend two mandatory skills sessions before being allowed to attend a full practice. These skills sessions could be the scrum, the lineout, ball handling, back plays, tackling or rucking sessions. He also suggest mandated safety course sessions for newer players. Not only will this aid them in the way that they play but this will also help ease the mind of the girls’ parents.

Steinberg brings up some very serious points that I know I’ve experienced first hand. There are ways to combat this issue! Team bonding: dinners, touch rugby games, movies, etc. Girls have to give each other a chance if they want to succeed because you can’t have a women’s team without women. Next time you’re at practice, tell a rookie that they’re doing a good job and invite them to grab lunch with you one day. It could be just the thing they needed to hear and might just keep coming around.