Jason McMillan
Byron Community Primary School grade 3–4 boys had a great time playing in their first Touch Rugby tournament in Lismore on September 6.
Despite none of the boys having played Touch Rugby before, the Community School thought that a new challenge would be an excellent opportunity to build a sense of teamwork.
Through weekly training sessions over six lunchtimes leading up to the tournament, the boys progressed from static, straightline passing, to passing while running in a line, to learning the finer details and rules of Touch.
During the tournament they came up against many teams who had significant experience and preparation for these matches and in their first game they were quite out of their depth.While they had learnt skills and rules, they had not played a competitive match before. They were comprehensively beaten in game one.
Between matches, their teacher Brendan talked to the boys about how to be more competitive in a game situation. While they lost game two, it was by a narrow margin and you could see the confidence levels and skills improving. The boys then came out and won game three, drew game four and won game five. Their improvement with each match was astounding.
Exceptional coaching and support and a real sense of teamwork resulted in a very successful day.
All the boys came away having taken on a new challenge, and improved at such a dramatic rate that they were competitive in a sport not played previously.
The day was both character building and empowering for all of the children involved.
