Xmas update - Dec 2022
Dear Rams community,
Seasons greetings from your Club Committee! Before we break for the holidays, a few updates and key dates for the new year diary.
PLAYER REGISTRATIONS 2023
Player Registrations via Rugby Xplorer will open January 9th.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the club in 2023. It's important that players register asap - it helps coaches, managers and the Club in general prepare for the season ahead. A registration link will be provided nearer the time.
JUNIOR UPDATE
The pre-season for U14s-20s will kick off Tuesday 31 January. Training will be 6-8pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We understand that players and families may have commitments with other activities at this time of the year, but the earlier we start and the harder we train, the stronger our teams become and the better our results are likely to be. Please come along to as many pre-season sessions as possible.
In advance of this, we will get things moving by hosting a Family Evening on January 25th. A great chance to connect, rekindle those rugby spirits and introduce prospective junior players to 'the great game', at our great club. Details to come.
ACCELERATED PERFORMANCE SQUAD (APS) UPDATE
Rayne Simpson, Director of Rugby:
As the 2022 season draws to a close, our Senior Mens APS and Women's squad close in on the final stages of their 1st block 5 week program.
Headed up by Grit Athletic Performance, the program commenced with Initial Testing with the goal of profiling the athletes performance capabilities, and screening for potential risk of injury. The training schedule included a conditioning program, gym sessions and retesting in week 5.
The APS group will now enjoy their Christmas break, taking home individual programs prior to pre-season commencing on January 17th. Robbie and Tyson from Grit will spearhead the preseason strength and conditioning and our senior coaching group will begin to introduce field skill based sessions, which will run for 8 weeks until we close in on our trial dates as we dovetail into the start of season 2023.
Speaking about Block 1 Robbie and Tyson both commented on how well the off-season program is running. Similar comments from our 1st grade Head Coach Phil Hazlett, "Incredible atmosphere, the Grit team and the coaches have created this environment which is High Performance where the boys and girls can challenge themselves, put in the hard work and actually witness results". 1st Grade Forwards Coach Lia Noa echoes Phil's comments and adds that the big surprise over the past 5 weeks was how hard the tight 5 worked, with the front three leading the way with some massive improvements. Women's Head Coach Konisi Yabaki was extremely proud of how the Womens APS group embraced the program, showing incredible spirit, determination, and support for each other. He can't wait to progress to the next block when preseason begins.
In summary, a big thank you to all the athletes that embraced the past 5 weeks, to Robbie and Tyson, Phil. Lia, Konisi and the rest of the coaching group, well done, we look forward to Block 2.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Lastly, to all our Rams community, we hope you are able to enjoy some well earned rest over the holiday season and spend some quality time with friends and family. It’s been a big year and we are looking forward to an even bigger year in 2023.