One of the main goals of the TRU is to develop and grow rugby in our region. In it’s third year, the women’s D3 division includes three new teams in the DFW area. As we look at these clubs continuing to grow and hopefully promoting into women’s D2 we knew we needed to continue to allow for their development but in the right atmosphere.
The TRU Board approached Elaine Vassie of the Dallas Harlequins as we knew she had experience with developing grassroots rugby in her past. She included Monique Fosco of DARC and together they came up with a 10s round robin format played on a smaller pitch.
This format on a smaller pitch with less numbers seems to be working and encourages more ball in hand time. Lineouts are suually quick throws, penalties and free kicks are quick taps and there is no conversion attempt after a try. This has served to speed up the game and players are making quicker rugby decision as a result.
Alliance Women’s Rugby coach, Karbun Tang indicated:
This is what we have needed to develop the ladies. The spirit amongst the teams appear to be competitive, respectful and friendly.
This format gives us a good gauge and also confirmation to what we need to work on moving towards the 15s game. Furthermore, the enjoyment that our ladies are having is starting to attract and help recruit more ladies to join in.
With four events remaining in 2020, all eyes are on Grand Prairie women as they’ve gone undefeated so far. A special shout-out goes to the Dallas Harlequins as they’ve often brought a fourth team of new players to these events to fill out the competition.
