The past seven days have been fruitful for our club rugby structures and we remain in good spirits following more good news from our DHL WP Rugby Women’s squad.
The good news from our Women’s Rugby Division this past week was the conclusion of the round-robin of the Women’s Premier Division and our DHL WP Rugby Women’s Team ending on top of the log. We now host the Border Ladies at DHL Newlands in the finals on 16 July 2021. We go into the match as defending champions after securing the national title in 2019, 2018, and 2017. The team amassed an incredible 343 points with only 73 points scored against them and a points difference of 270. The pre-season strength and conditioning training has clearly paid dividends.
Last week saw the resumption of our online workshops for clubs as we presented a webinar on club membership recruitment and rejuvenation. The session looked at various recruitment methods which include growing segments of the club such as youth, women and girls, and past players. The presentation placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that club administrators should continuously look to grow their members base beyond only those that play as registered members.
Additionally, we considered that community sport is under global pressure to find creative ways to stimulate membership and as such we reminded our clubs of the importance of staying connected with their members and fans. Simple solutions such as sharing birthday wishes on WhatsApp, congratulating a member on a newborn or sharing an old photo memory will go a long way towards letting your members know you still care and are always thinking of their interest.
Our next webinar is now for club leadership this Monday as we look at the “Role of the Executive”. This workshop is geared to supporting our club structures with the administrative function of a club structure. In this space, we realise that most amateur sports administrators are volunteers and need as much support and guidance as possible. Any club executive member wishing to attend this workshop should be in touch with their club secretary to signup.
Last week Thursday saw our Club High-Performance structures present another workshop for just over seventy of our club coaches. The session was presented by DHL WP Rugby Skills coach Labeeb Levy who delivered a fascinating first-hand view of skills for attacking rugby at a professional level and the work behind the scenes.
After a week off from training and following the return from the national team and their experience in the international series, our DHL WP Rugby u20 players now return to training at the HPC as they prepare for the upcoming u20 Currie Cup.
As you know we continue our drive to grow Women’s Rugby and we remind our clubs to appoint a Women’s Representative within their club structure so that we may engage in a meaningful full manner. This person will be dedicated to the task of growing the Women’s structure at their respective club. Any person wishing to take on this role to help their club can sign up here. We will then invite you to the various engagements which are structured to place you in a position to take up the challenges with the tools you need.
Further to the initiative to grow Women’s Rugby at club level, we have now embarked on an additional campaign ie “The Women’s Collective” this collective is made up of WP Rugby Women’s players, coaches, and administrators who formerly represented WP Rugby together with our current players. This group of leaders and role models will engage regularly to share experiences and memories to help stimulate the excitement of Women’s rugby.