Jabiru Bushratz conclude successful season of junior rugby union

2019 has been an exciting year for the resurgence of rugby union in the Jabiru community with the mighty Jabiru Bushratz legacy being reborn in the form of the junior rugby union program. 
This year, there was a total of 25 fully registered players, (19 x U10’s, 2 x U12’s (2 girls) and 4 x U14’s) who made the 500km return trip into Darwin every Friday for 2 terms to play rugby union against the best in Darwin. 
There were enough U10’s players to form there own standalone team in the U10 competition while the two U12 players played for the Darwin Dragons Rugby Union Club and the four U14 players played for the Palmerston Crocs Rugby Union Club.
The Jabiru Bushratz U10 side played a total of 17 games, with 13 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses placing them second overall. 
The Bushratz went 13 games in a row undefeated from round 5 through to round 17, with 11 wins and 2 draws. The Bushratz were the only team in the U10 grade to beat the U10 crowned champions, Darwin Dragons. They played each other 3 times, with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. 
From the 17 games the Bushratz scored a total of 800 points, conceding only 335. Ezra Kulu led the points tally accumulating 202 for the season. 
The Bushratz scored an astonishing 128 tries throughout the season. Mitchell Cooper lead the charge in this domain with a total of 29 tries, while Philip Cooper was hot on his heels with 26. As the season went on the players' understanding of the game grew exponentially with their attacking game flourishing while their defensive game became more aggressive and physical.
Over the terms there were a total of 38 training sessions held at Magela Oval. From the trainings there were a total of 55 kids, male and female aged from 7 years of age to 18 years of age attend at least 1 or more training throughout this time. The average attendance per training was 26-27 players with a high majority of our 25 registered players having between a 90%-100% attendance.
Two of the U14 boys, Cody Cooper and Joshua Cooper have been selected for the NT Representative sides who travel to Toowoomba in the mid-term school holidays for a rep tournament. Cody has been selected for the NT U14 side while Josh has been selected for the NT U16 side - a great achievement by these two in their first ever year of 
rugby union.
The season and junior rugby union program has been a great success for the community. The players have all grown immensely, individually and as a team in their first ever year of rugby union. The development of each individual on and off the field has been very noticeable in a social context, school setting and their overall wellbeing. 
The success of the season is not the fact that they finished second, but the fact that we had 55 players come through the program, 25 players registered and the overall community support and involvement especially from parents, teachers and community stakeholders has further highlighted the importance of the program. 
2020 bodes to be an exciting prospect for the Jabiru Bushratz as they endeavour to grow the program to be even better than it is with a focus of ‘building our own legacy’ as we look to empower their own people by developing the ‘person’. 
The Jabiru Bushratz would like to thank a handful of sponsors because without their contributions they would not have got off the ground: Blueridge Engineering, Jabiru Foodland, Jabiru Area School, Peter Wellings, Selena Uibo, MLA member of Arnhem, Northern Territory Rugby Union, Rugby Australia, Top End Regional Finance, Sports Agencies Aurora, Jabiru.