JUNIOR GOLD CUP SEASON TWO ABOUT TO KICK OFF FOR 2015
Australian Rugby Union’s Pathway to Gold program continues this year with the commencement of the Junior Gold Cup (JGC) this Saturday 14 February.
In 2014 the JGC saw over 1200 Rugby players compete, with that number set to be equaled in 2015, with the introduction of Logan and Ipswich to the competition.
With 24 JGC Centers around the country, players will be exposed to a national elite Rugby competition with even more Rugby players exposed during the trial period with the various state unions.
An additional fixture added to the JGC representative calendar is a match between the best NSW and Queensland players in both the Under 15s and Under 17s, which will be played at Ballymore during the Easter long weekend.
ARU General Manager Pathways and Performance, Ben Whitaker was pleased with the progress of the competition and the pathway in place for future Wallabies.
“The ARU has spent a fair amount time over the last two years looking at our pathways, both competition and program, to develop players as young as 14-15 years of age all the way through to the Wallabies.
“One thing we identified as key was to really provide opportunity and access to our best young players right across the country to high level training and playing.
“The Junior Gold Cup fills that void and it complements the work that gets done in representative Rugby in that age group at Junior clubs and schools.
“24 centers around the country seems like a lot, with 48 teams but we did that on purpose to make sure that we had the whole of the country covered.
“It leads us to have over 1200 kids involved in this program each year and that’s really critical to us because we don’t want to narrow the pathway at such a young age group. We want to keep it open to provide as much exposure as possible to as many young players as possible.”
The first match of the Junior Gold Cup in 2015 will take place between North Queensland and Darling Downs at Barlow Park, Cairns this Saturday February 14.
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