Taieri College pupils to play for club

Taieri College assistant principal Jared Peacock, Taieri junior rugby club president Tim Guthrie...
Taieri College assistant principal Jared Peacock, Taieri junior rugby club president Tim Guthrie and Taieri College principal Dave Hunter. PHOTO: Gregor Richardson
Taieri junior rugby club and Taieri College have formalised a relationship which will see year nine and 10 pupils play for the club instead of the school.

Taieri College principal and former Taieri premier coach David Hunter said the school have a memorandum of understanding with the club "to pool resources" at the junior level "with the intentions of giving the boys an even better product".

"They’ll still be our school kids but playing under the partnership with the club.

"A lot of these young lads have come up through the grades with the Eels and have a real affiliation with the club, so we just want to keep that going during their early high school years.

"It is just a common-sense relationship where we’ve got good people at the school and at the club who want to work together with the kids to give them a good go in their younger years."

Hunter was not sure whether other schools around the country had established formal ties with rugby clubs.

"But it is new for us in the fact we’ve formalised it. We’ve got a memorandum of understanding how it works, and what have you."

Taieri College usually field one year nine and one year 10 team each year.

Taieri junior rugby club president Tim Guthrie said the new relationship was "something that has been in the pipeline for a while".

"From our point of view it is about keeping the kids together and to keep them in the game.

"We just see this as a big opportunity to achieve that."

The junior club is in a healthy position and generally runs between 18 and 20 teams each season.

The new relationship with Taieri College will increase that number by a couple.

"It is good for the rugby club and it is good for the community," Guthrie said.
 

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