Junior Rugby
The Shirley Junior Vikings are where most of this club starts. Around 55 kids come through Burwood Park on a Saturday morning, from four year olds having their first run in rippa to Year 6 teams playing proper contact rugby, and the whole thing is run by parents and volunteers who mostly got asked once and never stopped.
You do not need to know anything about rugby to join. You do not need to have played. Plenty of our parents had never been near a club before their kid asked, and they are now the ones running the sideline and the sausage sizzle. If you did play, the senior grades are still there.
New players are welcome at any point in the season. If your child turns up in week nine having never held a ball, they will be in a team by week ten.
Subs are free, and here is what you get
There are no junior subs at Shirley. Not reduced, not discounted for the second child. Free. That is a deliberate decision by the club and our sponsors pay for it, because we would rather have a kid on the field than a form in the too hard basket.
Every new junior player also gets a Shirley Rugby hoodie, a school bag and a beanie, so nobody turns up on a cold Saturday morning in someone else's gear, and nobody has to ask their parents for anything before they have even had a game.
What you actually get, though, is the rest of it. Coaches who have been through the club's coaching courses and know what a seven year old needs, which is not what a seventeen year old needs. Small sided games where everybody gets the ball. A player of the day award every week and a set of Viking helmets to wear home. Curtain raisers at the stadium. A prizegiving at the end of the year that fills the clubrooms.
And a group of families who look out for each other. That is the part that is hard to put in a list and it is the reason most of them stay.
Our grades
Year 1 Rippa and Year 2 Rippa are non contact. Pull the tag off the belt and that is the tackle. It is the best possible introduction to the game.
From Year 3 onwards the grades move into contact, with the tackle height, the scrums and the field size all scaled to the age group. Nobody is thrown in.
We field teams from Year 1 through to Year 6, though not every grade every year: there is no Year 4 side in 2026. Which grade your child is in follows their school year, not their size or their birthday.
Coaches and contacts
Every junior enquiry goes to one place, and it reaches the right coach from there. New player, which grade, a question about a Saturday, anything at all.
Victoria Green, Junior Coordinator
juniors@shirleyrugby.co.nz
We field teams from Year 1 Rippa through to Year 6, each with its own coaches and managers. Email Victoria and she will put you straight in touch with the right one.
If it is your first Saturday, the plan of the five fields at Burwood Park will tell you which one you want, which side of the road to park on, and the club calendar has whatever else is on.
Draws and results come from Rugby Xplorer and update automatically. Open the full club page on Rugby Xplorer.