Beneficiaries
Listed below are some of the projects that we have supported that aim to grow rugby in Victoria. If you have an idea that needs funding or other support, please contact us.
Academy Movement
Academy Movement - Driving Student Success Through Rugby!
Over 350 students participating in organised school-based rugby academies - with 20+ state players across the first two rugby academies - Academy Movement strives to help students improve outcomes across multiple areas whilst also promoting rugby and feeding students into local Victorian clubs.
The Academy was the beneficiary of a $10K grant from RCV in 2021 as a part of our inaugural investment round with monies raised from events run by RCV and donations from members. This grant allowed Academy Movement to provide rugby equipment to two schools!
The Academy Movement represents so many of the RCV goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
RCV continues to support the Academy through consulting, mentoring highlighting at RCV functions, donations and promoting wherever we can!
Schools currently involved:
Rebel Shield
The Rebels Shield competition, launched in 2022, is an exciting new interschool midweek rugby competition for both U16 boys and girls teams from selected Victorian government schools.
Over 150 students took part in the 2022 competition, with new schools expected to be added in 2023 and more age grades in years to come.
Rugby Victoria, as organisers of the Rebels Shield was the beneficiary of a $10K grant from RCV in 2021 as a part of our inaugural investment round with monies raised from events run by RCV and donations from members. This grant allowed Rugby Victoria to provide transport for schools competing in the competition.
The Rebels Shield represents so many of the RCV goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
Schools competing in 2022 included:
Maroondah Juniors
In 2021 Adam & Angus Fouri had a problem: they wanted to play rugby but their local club, Maroondah RUFC had no junior rugby program.
Luckily, Adam & Angus also have an amazing Mum, Mhairi who approached Maroondah Rugby Club and restarted the juniors program, starting with just a few players, but doubling its numbers every year since!
Anyone with half an interest in rugby in Victoria knows there are hundreds of kids like Adam & Angus who would love the game if just given a chance.
Maroondah Rugby Club was the beneficiary of a $5,000 grant from RCV in 2021 as a part of our inaugural investment round with monies raised from events run by RCV and donations from members. This grant allowed Maroondah to buy junior jerseys, rugby balls, hit pads and other equipment to ensure every boy and girl in this part of Melbourne who wanted to play, can play rugby!
Maroondah Rugby Club's juniors program represents so many of RCV's goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
We are proud to support their efforts to grow rugby in Victoria.
Shepparton Rugby Club
What you can see in the adjacent photo is something extraordinary. The green & white team is Shepparton Junior Rugby Club playing in their first ever season in 2022; the first new regional junior rugby club in Victoria in a generation!
It is the result of inspirational vision combined with tireless work and enthusiasm. But the result is glorious! And now Shep Juniors have their very first State Rep player, an incredible result for their club and for Victorian Rugby.
The Rugby Club of Victoria were proud to grant Shepparton Rugby Club $5,000 to help with the cost of growing their Juniors program. The funds will be used to pay for jerseys for every player, in-school promotion, playing equipment and transport to help cover the cost of the weekly 5-6 hour round trip to play Melbourne sides.
The Shepparton Rugby Club Juniors program represents so many of RCV's goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
We are proud to support their efforts to grow rugby in Victoria.
Wheelchair Rugby pathways program
Until 2023 if you were a young boy or girl wanting to play Wheelchair Rugby - the full contact, tough-as-nails Paralympic sport sometimes known as 'Murder Ball' - the only option you had was to play against adults.
Disability Sport and Recreation Victoria wanted to change that and had a vision for an Australian first: a wheelchair rugby pathway program that allowed children of all abilities to try this sport.
In 2023, the Rugby Club of Victoria were excited to get behind this innovative program with a grant of $10,000 that will help pay for court hire, coaching & officiating and see kids like Beau and his mates (pictured) joining the millions of others around the world playing rugby.
The pathway program will include in-school sessions where able bodied and disabled boys and girls will play Wheelchair Rugby, allowing all to get a greater sense of the skill and determination required to play the our great game.
Disability Sport and Recreation Victoria's Wheelchair Rugby pathways program represents so many of RCV's goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
We are proud to support their efforts to grow rugby in Victoria.
Victorian Rugby Referees Association
Across Australia volunteering has dropped off a cliff following the Covid pandemic and the disruptions to sport that it caused.
Rugby has suffered like so many others, with referee ranks in particular down to their lowest levels in living memory. Junior games are now more likely to be reffed by a coach or well-meaning spectator than by a qualified referee.
Rugby is a beautifully complicated sport. It needs good referees to make for great games. If the current referee drought in Victoria continues, the very existence of rugby in this State is threatened.
But there is hope! The VRRA have a plan to grow their numbers that has already seen 65 new 'green shirts' (L-Plate refs) qualified in 2023 - a record to date - with more Pasifika refs and female refs than ever before and a clear pathway to higher honours.
In 2023, the Rugby Club of Victoria were proud to grant the VRRA $5,000 to help with the cost of growing referee numbers, with funds used to pay for jerseys, registration for junior referees, education courses and in-school programs.
The VRRA's referee recruitment program represents so many of RCV's goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
We are proud to support their efforts to grow rugby in Victoria.
New regional rugby club
The PALM visa program sees thousands of young men and women from the Pacific Islands come to work and live in Victoria each year. The program allows much needed funds to flow back to Pacific Island nations, while providing workers for Victoria's agricultural, meat and fruit processing sectors.
What do these young men and women want to do when they're not working? Play rugby of course!
Kiwi Hawthorn Rugby Club wants to help establish a new rugby club in Swan Hill, where a group of 25+ PALM workers are already training regularly and are desperate to play more regularly.
In 2023, the Rugby Club of Victoria were excited to get behind Kiwi Hawthorn's idea to start a rugby club in Swan Hill with a grant of $5,000 that will help pay for playing equipment, uniforms and transport costs.
Kiwi Hawthorn see this very much as a pilot program, one that will provide valuable lessons and hopefully lead to a template that can be used to establish more clubs around the State.
This idea represents so many of RCV's goals - bringing rugby to Victorian youth, promoting and driving rugby in Victoria and helping create safe spaces for all rugby lovers.
We are proud to support their efforts to grow rugby in Victoria.
Eastern Renegades Rugby
If we're going to grow rugby in Victoria we've got to innovate!
With a magnificent Rugby World Cup underway generating lots of interest in our great game, we need a way to convert that interest into kids getting down to their local club and giving it a go. But with Summer fast approaching, most clubs are hibernating - any momentum created by the RWC could be lost.
Four local clubs - Box Hill, Eltham, Kiwi Hawthorn & Maroondah - want to make sure that any boy or girl who wants to give rugby a go over summer can get a chance. Together they've formed the 'Eastern Renegades' and had a program ready to go that would offer families come n try sessions at their local club over 15 weeks October - March culminating in a gala day carnival as the 2024 season approaches.
It was a fantastic idea, but it needed financial support. Just $1,000 would make the program more affordable for families and help deliver a top quality, safe experience for all.
RCV members responded to this challenge, together raising more than $1400 for the Eastern Renegades in less than a week.
We are proud to be major sponsors of this wonderful, innovative program, helping dozens of new players fall in love with our game and helping to keep local clubs viable.
If you'd like to see more people playing rugby in Victoria, join us!
Anyone can make a tax-deductible donation to help
The Rugby Club of Victoria grow rugby in our great State.