Rugby crisis in Illawarra with teenage competition scrapped

Rugby’s ongoing battle to keep the game alive at grassroots level is becoming harder by the year with country teenagers, who were once the lifeblood of the game, dropping out in increasing numbers.

Teenagers are turning off rugby in the Illawarra region.

Rugby’s ongoing battle to keep the game alive at grassroots level is becoming harder by the year with country teenagers, who were once the lifeblood of the game, dropping out in increasing numbers.

It’s a problem that’s not only impacting on rugby, with teenagers around the world spending more time playing video games and staring at their smart phones than kicking a ball, but it’s the still the canary in the coal mine that national administrators need to be paying close attention to.

That being the case, the Illawarra region, one of the state’s traditional regional powerhouses in rugby, makes for alarming reading with South Coast teenagers having to play in Sydney because there’s no local competition for players above 15 years of age.

Despite having 10 senior clubs, stretching from Campbelltown to Nowra and including Wollongong, Bowral, Camden and Kiama, the next generation are deserting the 15-man game.

Overall junior playing numbers are down around 30 per cent in the Illawarra, despite an increase in female participation, which is the lone area of growth.

Last year, only four clubs in the Illawarra were able to field teams in the first XV competition, for players aged under 17, but the number of registrations has dropped even further this year, forcing regional administrators to scrap the competition altogether.

Wayne Cusack, the junior chairman and director of Illawarra Rugby, has applied to enter an Illawarra Under 18s team in the Sydney Juniors competition as well as two Under 16s teams, one based at Wollongong and the other based at Camden, just to make sure the kids who do want play can still get a game.

“We’re doing everything we can,” he said. “The numbers are down in the older age groups but we’re not the lone ranger there, this is happening with a lot of different sports in different places.”