Primary School Sports Association State Carnival a hit

Over 250 of the state’s top Under 12 schools’ players were in Armidale recently for the PSSA State Carnival.  Run over three days, the youngsters from 13 teams impressed competition organisers, talent scouts and special guests including HSBC Waratahs’ flanker Pat McCutcheon and former Wallabies and Waratahs’ legends Tim Gavin and Tim Wallace.

 

The tournament culminated in a Grand Final that saw Combined Independent Schools record a comfortable win over Polding.

 

Praising the standard of rugby and the excellent conduct of all the participants and parents, NSW Development Manager for the north west region Stephen O’Brien said, “The standard of rugby was the best we’ve seen in the past four or five years.

 

“From the tournament, the selectors have been able to pick a very strong NSW PSSA state team that will compete against Victoria, South Australia and ACT in the National U12s schoolboy tournament that starts at the end of this month. 

 

“Another real positive was seeing the number of girls involved and playing good enough rugby to get selected at this level.  There were six involved this year, that’s the largest number of girls at the tournament  in recent years.”

 

A full list of winners will be available from the NSW Government’s Department of Education and Training website shortly. 

 

The PSSA State Carnival is one of a number of competitions run for school and junior players within NSW.  Around 150 school children got the chance to try rugby for the first time recently, thanks to the introduction of rugby in another of the PSSA’s events, the Coastal Cup.  Taking its name from the Sydney Coastal Zone schools that participate, this year saw rugby join 14 sports including league and AFL in the seven week competition.   

The inaugural rugby competition took place at Centennial Park and was contested by 40 teams from 12 schools. It culminated in a two week finals series for Under 9s, 10s and 12s, which finished last Friday.  For many of the 400-plus youngsters, the tournament was their first taste of rugby union.  

 

Last week also saw the culmination of the Sydney Juniors’ season, with the Sydney Juniors Grand Finals contested by 104 teams from Under 10s to Under 17s and opens at numerous venues across the city.   All were attended and supported by the HSBC Waratahs, with players on hand to offer encouragement and congratulations to all the young players and parents involved.

 

Over the past 11 months, the HSBC Waratahs Community Connection program has seen players and coaches make well over 1000 appearances at around 250 community events across the state.  The last two weeks have also seen coach Alan Gaffney join the Waverley women’s squad for a coaching Q&A and Tom Carter attend the St Andrews Cathedral School’s presentation night.
 

Aimed at bringing NSW players, supporters and youngsters closer together, the Community Connection program was launched in November 2011 and will continue throughout 2012 and 2013,  with a host more school, charity and community events planned for NSW across the season.  Photos from all events are posted on the Waratahs Facebook wall.

 

Ends