Play rugby for Canvey Island
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“No structure will remain standing unless it’s built on a strong foundation”
Playing rugby: the clubs youth section has grown exponentially since 2018, we have received lots of attention and accolades for our work there.
However we don’t expect to bear any fruits from our labour until around 2024 in the senior sides
The Youth section was built on some very solid core values and philosophy, and recently we have taken those same principles and transcended them through the club into the Seniors.
In this region of Essex there are a lot of rugby clubs competing constantly with each other not only on the pitch but through social media. These clubs are announcing the joining of big name players, hiring of big name coaches, superstar honorary presidents and superstar coaching sessions…
At Canvey we have a slightly different view not only on what the game means, but our role within it and the community.
“It’s important to understand who started the club and why…”
Canvey Rugby Club is a throwback to the old amateur days. A simpler time, where we care more about supporting others in our community, than trying to outdo them. We are always the underdog; no superstars play at this club and the club will always be bigger than any one individual.
We understand the demands on families in the modern day. The working week for most is 6 maybe 7 days a week. As a result finding time to play rugby can be difficult. To help we took training down to just once a week, which has proved a viable and attractive alternative to many. The result? We had between 20 and 40 players at training throughout last season.
Our training sessions are well planned, run by RFU qualified coaches and cater for everyone regardless of ability and experience. The current players we have are supportive of each other and have bought into the core values and principles. Senior players and captains work together well with the coaches…but most importantly on the pitch players are enjoying training, winning games and enjoying each other’s company.
Playing rugby on game day is about the players and not the coaches. If the players enjoy it and have ownership of it they can go on, win games, create some excellent memories for themselves but most importantly relieve some of the stress from their working week.
“If playing rugby becomes a job as well… it’s no longer enjoyable”
We ended the 2018/2019 season with only enough players to field a 1stXV side…
We end the 2019/2020 season with 3 senior sides playing rugby!
A 1st XV that gained promotion and ended up in the semi final of the RFU regional vase.
A 2nd XV narrowly missing out on promotion finishing 3rd in their league and we got a 3rd XV out for the first time in over 10yrs.
Although it may look different to what other clubs deem as success, this for us what a great season. We welcomed older players back into the game, we help younger players transition from youth to senior rugby and we even started people on their rugby playing journey with no prior experience.
If we can keep doing this, we can ensure a future for Canvey Rugby Club and honour the people that started it all in the first place
Alex Breading
Director Of Rugby
