Another large New Zealand rugby union has announced they are ending their junior representative programme.
Tasman, a merged union covering Marborough and Nelson Bays, announced the decision today after conducting research on the topic.
"It was the position of the TRU board and staff during these discussions that any replacement programme had to be 'better than what is currently offered'," Tasman said in a statement.
Tasman becomes the second union to axe their junior representative programme after North Harbour made the same decision earlier this year.
But Tasman is still focused on developing their talent.
"A decision by TRU has been reached to replace the current age-grade representative programme with age-grade player development sessions for all participants.
"It will be called Mako Rugby Player Development Sessions for both male and female, these will be hosted at central venues in Nelson and Blenheim allowing all players, coaches and parents, to participate on site together."
When North Harbour made the decision earlier this year, New Zealand Rugby came out in support of them and said other regions should look at making the decision as well.
NZ Rugby's Head of Participation and Development Steve Lancaster told TVNZ1's Breakfast at the time it's about the kids.
"There's a growing amount of evidence that shows that kids that enter representative programmes at an earlier age are more likely to exit at an earlier age," he said.
"Kids develop at different rates - we don't want to see kids sent a signal that they don't have potential at an age where it's too early to know."
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