BRIGHTON  YOUTH  RUGBY 

BYRA charges $185 for U8’s, $225 for U10-U14, and $295 for High school. The feedback we have from parents is that this is slightly more than rec center basketball, but significantly cheaper than other sports like Football, Hockey, Baseball, and LaCrosse.

As legend has it, a frustrated soccer player by the name of Webb Ellis picked up the ball during a game in 1823 and rugby was born when the other soccer players tackled him for picking up the ball. Rugby is played by only passing the ball backwards, and releasing the ball when tackled. The ball is advanced by running forward, or by kicking.

All sports have some risk involved, especially contact sports. Please see below link from November 2018, a current article on the subject -

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/28/how-rugby-and-the-nfl-found-common-ground-on-concussion

Generally accepted by the rugby community regarding this article –

1) Because of no pads, players are taught defensive strategies which protect their body during game play, even from a young age. Please ask a coach at camp to expound on this if you are curious and watch for some of these principles at camp and practice.

2) Rugby teaches “head behind” tackling as compared to “head in front” which is more common in football. In football – hard direct hits are necessary to stop the ball player from making it to the down marker (inches matter). In rugby – because the ball must be released after the tackle – what matters is that the tackle happens. The “head behind” method has shown a trend in positive results in less injuries due to less chance of runner colliding with the head, or falling on it.

3) Some injuries in football come from blind side hits, or blocking. In rugby, blocking is a penalty (obstruction), and only the ball carrier can be tackled (no blind side hits).

BYRA is currently practicing 2 days a week depending on age group at Pennock Elementary School. Please check with the coach for your age group, but practices can be as short as 1 hour for U8’s, or 1.5-2 hours for U10’s and up.

Games, if known – are posted on the website. Several weeks may still be “TBD” but games for Rugby Colorado north region (Brighton) are usually a mix of playing between UNC (Greeley), Pleasant View Fields in Boulder, and Aurora Sports Complex in Aurora. Directions and maps to those places are on the website here. Teams we play include (but aren’t limited to) Weld County, Larimer County, Boulder, Glendale, Denver, Superior, Air Force, and Thornton.

One of the best things about rugby is not needing to buy a lot of gear. You need a mouth guard (under $5 at most retailers) and cleats that don’t have a leading toe cleat. Soccer cleats don’t have a leading toe cleat. Football cleats do – but if you’re close to outgrowing football cleats from last season, the leading toe cleat can be cut off. Ask a coach for more details on this if you have further questions.

The season is 10 weeks long including practices, or only 6 weeks long including games. Practices start the week of 4/22 this year and games run 5/18 through 6/22.

Rugby has been in Colorado since at least the 70’s – but historically this was only with Men’s leagues or college. Popularity spread to high school in the 80’s and 90’s, and in the past decade or two – more youth teams have been popping up. Youth rugby has been in Brighton in the past 5-10 years, but 2019 is the inaugural year for the BYRA Tiki’s due to a need for a new team (no other previous teams in zip code 80601 continuing to offer active coaching and teams).

Yes. The World Cup is every 4 years, like soccer. 2019 is a World Cup year! RWC will be held in Japan this year between September and November. The last team to win the World Cup was the New Zealand All Blacks in 2015, when they beat the Australian Wallabees 34-17, in London.