The Start

Rugby is not a game for late comers – that’s why we invest so heavily in our Small Blacks programme.

Our research revealed many teens didn’t start playing until they were eight or nine years old, and many regarded this as late. Young people believe there is only a small window of opportunity to get into the game – otherwise they are forever playing catch up.

It can be intimidating for those who haven’t been involved from an early age. They struggle to follow the rules and are unsure of their position on the field. Initially it can be more about survival than fun, getting out of the way of good players and looking for instruction from parents on the side-line.

There is often a defining moment when teens decide to get serious or leave. It can be the result of an embarrassing situation such as a missed tackle, pressure from the side-lines, overbearing parent or from their peers.

“I didn’t play under 5’s, so I felt like I was coming into it late in the under 7’s. We missed out on the first age group. So, I felt like everyone else had already been experienced in rugby. The first couple of games I felt out of place - I didn’t really understand the rules.”

“I started in the under 9’s, so everyone else in the team had been playing in the years before that so I felt out of place not knowing where to stand and what to do. It was about being at the wrong place on the paddock.”

Around 50% of all rugby players in New Zealand are Small Blacks. Small Blacks rugby has been designed to help players develop their rugby skills as their physical ability changes, making the game as simple and safe as possible for all Kiwi kids, regardless of their age, shape or size. It’s a great way to get children involved in a team sport.

The Small Blacks Development Model was also developed to ensure a consistent approach towards play, coaching and player welfare at all levels throughout the country, so when children graduate from the Small Blacks programme they have the best possible skill set to take them through their rugby career.

Balls, fields and team sizes are smaller than traditional rugby, allowing children to run freely with the ball in hand, learn to catch and pass and get to the other end of the field without having to run the entire 100 metres of a standard field.

The tackle is introduced at seven years old, so five and six-year olds play a non-contact version of the game, ripping flags from the belts of the opposition instead. The game has no scrums or lineouts.

Tackles, scrums and lineouts are slowly introduced with the latter being uncontested until a suitable stage of development is reached.

When the teens were asked to circle words best describing the way they felt when they first played a game of rugby, they indicated words like worried, scared, tentative, and unsure.

This was because it was all new and they didn’t know what to do on the field. The later they started the more anxious players appeared to be.

Is this how we want our kids to feel when they start rugby? Maybe we have some more work to do in our Small Blacks grades as well.

One teenager commented that rugby had been more about survival than fun to begin with.

Serious question: Why would a 10-year-old be worrying about survival in a game?