How to set up a rugby team/club abroad?

Liopleurodon

Well, first off I'm a student abroad in Germany and am interested and committed to bringing the beautiful game to all corners of the Earth.

My university and course specifically is quite international with students from Ireland, England, France, Italy, Spain, the USA and is based in southwest Germany (excl. other minor nationalities)

My fellow Irish students and German students who studied with us in Ireland are all keen on the idea, and I can only assume that with several rugby nationalities as per the list above (along with Spanish who oddly have a great interest in the game, though not professionally and Americans, who from experience are easily convertible given a lack of Yankball) that there could be enough interest to get something going: Even a simple training and kick about (though would that alone really attract interest?)

My own rugby skills are lacking to tell the truth, I was a B team school player and am presently three years out of practise! :eek: Several of us have rugby experience, though only one still plays (up in Dundalk).

Does anyone have any experience in organising something like this? It would entail finding a pitch (unless grounds are usable at the university, then this just requires conversion, though I assume with a lack of posts!), insurance, the gear required for training (personal gear notwithstanding!) and a handful of people who know their arse from their elbow rugby wise to lead the blind sheep, of course.

Who do I talk to? About what? What do I do? How do I do it? Where to set my ambitions? Professional trainer or 'the lads' approach? Official registration? Money-wise what's the story? Subsidies or general help from any rugby organisation?

I have literally dozens of questions, and I'm sure 90% of them escape me at the moment.

Should I give up now, or persist to the very end? (I do have two years for this project, assuming I leave as soon as I've completed my study) It's also important to note, I've also interested the year below me too, so hopefully creating a 'successor' if you want to call it such.


Other notes: German sites don't appear entirely helpful, though that may be from first appearance, I haven't dropped anyone an e-mail as of yet. That said, I haven't a clue what I'd say or ask.

From what I can tell, there is a student/university league for rugby in Germany. University of Karlsruhe is the best, about an hour and a half away. There are RFCs in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Heidelberg (all in this state) - all too far away to join (that said, simply joining isn't what I want to do! )


Any help/advice/tips would be greatly appreciated.


Edit: Just found out, there are 14 rugby clubs in this state (Baden-Württemberg), 6 university teams (nearest actually being Tübingen) and is in fact played in 50 schools (now that I didn't expect!)

Kalashnikov_Kid

Hey there,

Ive no personal experience in doing this but would imagine that your points of call would be:

• The sports/societies officer or equivalent in your University - you should get info on procedures to set up a University sports club, funding and facilities. I know from the 2 Universities Ive been in, there were Lacrosse, American Football and Softball clubs that shared training facilities with the mainstream sports, so I'd imagine there could be a similar protocol for University rugby abroad

• The organisation that runs student rugby in general - there must be one, they should help you about registration/competitions/funding/insurance etc

• The German RFU - for general advice I suppose

I would also take a punt in contacting the nearest club geographically to you, to see if they can help you in any way.

When youve done that, try get a list of people that are interested which will help your case in getting recognition, facilities and funding and take it from there! Try and organise a core group of people that will act as your committee as a basis for making decisions.

irishbucsfan

Keep us up to date.

I can't wait to here how Boards.ie RFC are getting on.

OldJay

Do everything through the German union. Make a contact with them and take it from there.

I set up a club in Oslo when I lived there which unfortunately went under when I left in 2005. I now work in the IRFU.

If you do this in conjunction with a club, it most likely the main reason they will be helping you is with one thing only in mind: your players.

Another thing you should bear in mind is that this is not a job for one or even two people. You would need to outline roles for at least three people Areas to be covered are administration, co-ordination, recruitment, training. Leave all this to two people and you will be taking too much on.

You'll probably best start by entering Sevens and 10s comps during the season.

Before all that though, you have to sort out your club's registration with the union and relevant sports bodies (regional and/or national) and insurance coverage. Get a sponsor. Local pubs, especially ex-pat versions are usually a good place to start.

Insurance on facilities (injury due to divot on field or disregarded part of clubhouse) will probably be covered by the German union. Personal injury insurance will at first probably require to be setup by each individual themselves before joining any leagues.

If you are a student and trying this then the union will most likely not take you seriously unless you and your fellow instigators show intentions of sticking around after uni. A lot of the initial work requires dedication and a lot of time.

Diamondmaker

In the short term just to get up and running and to get people hooked It could be a good idea to geome touch going also. 5 on 5 or better.....

Good luck with it. I know the pain and satisfaction in forming a club having set up Brisbane Exiles Touch rugby here. You too, not being a permanent fixture there I assume? will come up with the transient nature of most or all players that we deal with. This tends to be the toughest part I think, keeping a ful set of players and then integrating and improving the constant flow of newbies.

A full 15s set up would be way more tricky so much repect from me.

Its hard work but very rewarding.

Best of luck...

DM

Liopleurodon

Thanks for the responses so far.

I set up a club in Oslo when I lived there which unfortunately went under when I left in 2005. I now work in the IRFU.

Excellent, I'm hoping, however, through the alumni and (hopefully existant) international support for rugby would help this grow. This university has a great reputation, and the students tend to be quite proud of that - to an annoying extent, but which I suppose would be useful, any former rugby players or anyone interested in the sport would love to play for it. As I said, I've already got the year beneath me interested, and am starting on the year below them already. I suppose then the question becomes how to convince the German RFU it's enough? (Maybe build a partnership with DCU RFU?)

If there's no momentum, however, no one will bother...

If you do this in conjunction with a club, it most likely the main reason they will be helping you is with one thing only in mind: your players.

Good point, but the nearest team is a university team, I'm hoping because of that there would be less of a 'pull' towards their team?

Another thing you should bear in mind is that this is not a job for one or even two people. You would need to outline roles for at least three people Areas to be covered are administration, co-ordination, recruitment, training. Leave all this to two people and you will be taking too much on.

I suppose my biggest problem isn't delegation, rather what to delegate. I already have three others in mind besides myself, who to give what job, and even... what tasks in full? Then the questions, would they all be reliable to keep up the work, or would it fizzle out into nothing after a month?

Before all that though, you have to sort out your club's registration with the union and relevant sports bodies (regional and/or national) and insurance coverage. Get a sponsor. Local pubs, especially ex-pat versions are usually a good place to start.

A question about registration, would registration require entering a competition, or could we say defer that for a year? Allow us to get things off the ground, organise training etc? Would they not help (as much?) if we don't register for competitions?

Our universities are a part of an international group of 8 universities, DCU has a team, the uni in Madrid has a team, and I'm not sure maybe teams in the French uni and in Lancaster - it would be interesting to have a competition between these universiteis, of course, unofficial.

As for sponsors, thank God for the Irish connection: luckily the Irish pub has some great owners who have a lot to do with the students of the university, especially the English speakers (as few as they are), so there's at least one.

Insurance on facilities (injury due to divot on field or disregarded part of clubhouse) will probably be covered by the German union. Personal injury insurance will at first probably require to be setup by each individual themselves before joining any leagues.

Insurance is something I'd delegate to a German organiser, this country's red tape is enough to strangle you... But thanks for the info regarding it, I'm sure it will come in handy.

In the short term just to get up and running and to get people hooked It could be a good idea to geome touch going also. 5 on 5 or better.....

I suppose you're right, while organising everything, even tossing the ball about would be better than nothing at all.

You too, not being a permanent fixture there I assume? will come up with the transient nature of most or all players that we deal with. This tends to be the toughest part I think, keeping a ful set of players and then integrating and improving the constant flow of newbies.

I'll be there until 2011, potentially if I decide to do a masters, an extra year and a half ontop of that - but no promises yet, the Alumni is pretty strong and if I'm able to pass it on to the year below me, surely I can keep tabs and help whenever I can.

But in that respect you're right, I've got the year above me, my year and the year below me to consider for players. And if it takes a year for this to get anywhere... Yeah, we'll see!

A full 15s set up would be way more tricky so much repect from me.

Its hard work but very rewarding.

Thanks! A full 15 would be ideal, depends on numbers, depends on interest, dedication and time but I hope I can. Even then, with numbers, if you don't have a clue or don't have the experience/training available... Yeah, it would be impossible.




Anyway, again thanks and sure any more advice is greatly appreciated - I'll try to keep you all informed and updated as time goes by, and if things hopefully progress!

Amazotheamazing

There's a guy on munsterfans.com called James Lynch who started a rugby club in Denver while there in college. Might be worth contacting him to see how he did it since the club is still running. He posts about it here.

http://www.munsterfans.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19926&KW=Denver&PN=0&TPN=2

Good luck with it.