Ulster Rugby Annual Report 2015 - 2016

Women’s Adult Rugby At adult level Cooke finished a credible 6th in the All Ireland League and also made it to the All Ireland Cup Final, losing out narrowly 10-7 to Galwegians. Cooke convincingly beat QUB by 76-15 in the final of the Rosie Stewart Cup. This season saw 12 teams involved in Ulster provincial competitions. Enniskillen won Ulster Division 1 but were deemed ineligible for promotion to AIL as they did not meet all of the participation criteria. City of Derry defeated Enniskillen 24-10 in the Ulster Women’s Senior Shield. In the Ulster Women’s Senior Plate Final, Cavan defeated Carrickfergus 33-0. Ballynahinch defeated Ballyshannon 48-5 in the ReJenerate Cup Final whilst Ballymoney defeated Belfast Harlequins in the Development Shield Final. At National level, Claire McLaughlin of QUB was included in the Ireland Six Nations squad and gained her first cap during the competition. Kathryn Dane, originally from Enniskillen RFC was included in the Ireland 7s programme for the first time. Both players joined Ashely Baxter who has been a member of the Ireland Women’s Squad and Ireland 7s Squad for a number of seasons now. In August 2017, Ireland will play host to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, with Belfast staging the Semi-final and Final stages. This world class event provides an opportunity to raise the profile of the female game within Ulster and to inspire more females to get involved in all aspects of the game. Johnny Neary is stepping down after many years as Chairman of the Women’s Committee. Johnny has given tremendous service and commitment to the development and organisation of the Women’s game in Ulster and the Branch is very appreciative of all that he has done over many years. REFEREES (USRFR) The Referees Society continues to make a tremendous contribution to the game in Ulster. Currently there are 140 active referees, which is slightly up on last season, as well as 43 assessors and 24 trial referees still undergoing training. Concerns around the retention of active referees had been raised during the year. These concerns were investigated and happily were found to be without foundation. With a drop of a about 10% in the number of male adult rugby games being played and referee numbers remaining stable, the USRFR do not see a crisis in recruitment although the development potential of the recruit base is continually monitored and reviewed. However, there are periods when the requirements for referee’s peak, such as a large number of Ulster based AIL fixtures or when the Ulster team plays on a Saturday along with other PRO12 games. Should these periods coincide with bouts of unavoidable illnesses, injuries and various domestic issues, the supply system of referees becomes strained especially at the higher grade refereeing levels, and it can become difficult to cover all available games.

It is pleasing to note that recruitment target KPI’s have been met this season. Whilst there is always scope to improve, the recruitment of persons who are closer to the start of their sporting days rather than coming to the end is a key target. All clubs have been asked to take measures to encourage inactive players towards refereeing. However, it is disappointing to note the high number of clubs without any affiliated referees and more efforts are needed to get clubs to encourage members to take up refereeing. The USRFR is grateful for the hard work and commitment of John Crothers and David Wilkinson junior in the development and delivery of the recruit intake programme. The KPI targets for the training and referee development programmes have been met with more than 51 training workshops run at all levels. There have also been some 55 one to one coaching sessions and the newly introduced use of video analysis has been a significant development tool with 42 games reviewed and reported upon. A key element of the Operations Team this year was the evolution of the Development Group Program and its associated coaching structure. 16 USRFR Referees, showing high potential, received over 95 coaching reports either from referee cams or dedicated experienced coaches attending their games. In addition there has been 320 general assessments carried out by Ian Thompson and his team of assessors.

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