Dorset and Wilts Rugby Football Union

Dorset & Wilts Rugby Football Union

Sport	Rugby union
President	John Palmer
Men's coach	Don Parsons
Website	[00]

Dorset and Wilts Rugby Football Union (D&WRFU) is the governing body for rugby union in the counties of Dorset and Wiltshire, England. D&WRFU is a Constituent Body of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and is responsible for the management and administration of the game within the counties of Dorset and Wiltshire of all forms and at all levels. D&WRFU attained full county status from the RFU in 1949.

Role and responsibility

D&WRFU's role is to promote and develop rugby within Dorset and Wiltshire by supporting its clubs and encouraging all those who wish to participate including players, coaches, referees and administrators. It works in partnership with the RFU and liaises with local authorities and other county and regional organisations to achieve this. Its remit includes:

• Acting as a two-way link between the clubs and the RFU, it represents the interests of its member clubs regionally and nationally and provides the RFU with local knowledge of its clubs.
• Working with the Dorset and Wilts Schools' Union and the constituent clubs' development bodies to manage the rugby development of all players within the two counties.
• Working in partnership with the Dorset and Wilts Referees' Society to recruit, trains and develop club referees.
• Appointing welfare managers to provide leadership in the safeguarding of young people, to support club welfare officers and to assist clubs in the development of their welfare procedures.
• Administration all county competitions and the representative teams that take part in the County Championship, the National U20 Championship and County age grade competitions.
• Using the disciplinary powers it has been delegated by the RFU to act in relation to the infringement of any law of the game by players below National League level, or for any conduct prejudicial to the game or for infringement of most RFU or IRB regulations.
• Auditing rugby facilities and producing plans to identify and prioritise club projects.
• Assisting and supporting proposals to develop Club facilities in partnership with the South West RFU.

To help achieve these aims it holds an annual conference for club officials and manages and administrates specific RFU projects including RFU funded campaigns to help clubs recruit and retain players, coaches and administrators. It also nominates candidates and tutors from its Clubs to attend the regional RFU leadership academy.

D&WRFU has a strategic plan supported by annual action plans and works with the RFU to:

• Increase the number of players, particularly those aged 16 and above
• Increase the number of matches being played
• Improve the sustainability of its clubs
• Increase the number of effective people supporting the playing of the game.

Badge and colours

The blazon for the Dorset and Wilts RFU arms are; vert, an orle argent per fess (at nombril point), three lions passant guardant in pale argent, a bustard wings elevated and addorsed also argent. The arms are generally shown on a shield described either as a badge or elegant.

The green and white colour of the arms and playing kit are taken from the arms of the Wiltshire County Council which were chosen to represent the white chalk and green grass of the North Wessex Downs. The three lions representing Dorset are derived from the old seal of Dorchester (the county town) which had borne the former royal arms of England; these are placed in a superior position to the Wiltshire bustard in order to compensate for the use of Wiltshire's colours (the colours from the Flag of Dorset are not represented as it was only adopted by the county in 2008, long after the formation of the Dorset and Wilts RFU, though it could now be argued that the white represents Dorset and the green stands for Wiltshire). The bustard represents Wiltshire because it was in this county that the bird was last seen in the late 1890s before being declared extinct in the United Kingdom (the great bustard was adopted as the crest of Wiltshire in recognition of this fact) and it is on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire that efforts are currently under way to reintroduce the species.

Twin counties sides

Home

Away

Senior men's side

The senior side regularly enters the RFU's County Championship Shield and have won it on two occasions, in 2010 and 2011.

In 2010 the Twin Counties won two of their three pool matches against Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Sussex, and then defeated Oxfordshire in the semi-final. They defeated Leicestershire 36–26 scoring five tries to only one conceded^[1] at Twickenham on 30 May 2010. Leicestershire had booked their finals spot with a 37-35 victory over Cumbria.^[2][3]

2010 final team

Replacements:

In the 2011 competition they beat Berkshire 33–22 and Oxfordshire 54–12 in the pool matches. They then beat Essex 61–37 in the semi-final and won the final at Twickenham on Sunday 29 May 2011, beating Surrey 43–22.

2011 final team

Replacements:

Under 20 side

In 2011 the Dorset and Wilts U20 side played 4 and won 3 in the U20 County Championship competition. They beat Berkshire 21–15, then Oxfordshire 21–32 and Buckinghamshire 0–36 before losing 58–10 to Gloucestershire in the quarter finals.

Competitions

Colts competitions

At colts level (under 18) there is an annual league and knockout cup competition.

Colts cup competition

Preliminary matches are usually played in January and February with the finals taking place in mid-April. At each stage only the winners of each match progress to get to the cup final match. There are two consolation matches, the plate final (to determine third and fourth place) and the bowl final. Trophies are presented to the winning team of each of the three final matches and individual medals to the winners of the cup final.

Due to RFU restrictions on playing time at Under 18 level, no extra time will be played in the event of a tied match.

• In preliminary matches the away side go through
• In the finals, the winner is (in order until a winner is found);
  • the side that has scored the most tries
  • the side that has scored the most goals (converted tries)
  • the side that scored (any points, not necessarily a try) first
  • in the event of no score, the trophy is shared

History of the Colts cup competition

References