Sense Team Sports
Sense Rugby — Sense Team Sports

So you’re thinking of joining Sense Team Sports?

We may be biased, but we think it’s your best idea yet. A rugby-based occupational therapy program designed for kids who find typical team sports tough.

  • 👥Pediatric OTs alongside trained rugby coaches
  • 🌱Neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, strengths-based
  • 🏉Real teams, real friends, a community for life
Join HereFind your local program
3
Locations
7
Participants
10+
Years running
A Sense Rugby session in progress

When therapy meets rugby.

Find your local team

Pop in your postcode

We’ll show you the closest Sense Rugby providers and link you straight to their signup form.

Sport skills are life skills.

Kids who play organised sport are more active, more connected, and grow up healthier. In Australia, only 1 in 4 children meet daily activity guidelines — we want to change that, especially for the kids who find it hardest.

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Some kids just need more time, space, practice, or compassion to find their team. That’s where we start.

— The Sense Rugby ethos
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Find your local program
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Sign up online
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Show up & play
  • Develop motor skills
    Coordination, balance, strength
  • Process sensory information
    Manage what their body and brain are taking in
  • Regulate emotions
    Notice, name and respond to feelings
  • Work in a team
    Take turns, share goals, be a friend
  • Focus & attend
    Stay with a task long enough to enjoy it
Build confidence
1.

Build confidence

Sense Rugby helps kids develop confidence and self-esteem, learn to follow instructions, wait their turn and be part of a group through team sports.

Be active
2.

Be active

A regular activity that's their own, learning new skills, with a community to belong to for life.

Have fun
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Have fun

A safe and fun environment to make friends, manage emotions and improve self-regulation.

But it doesn’t always come easy.

We’ve seen the barriers firsthand. For the past 10 years our team has supported 1000s of children to be part of teams. We’re not about diagnoses — but yes, many of our participants are neurodivergent, disabled, or have developmental delays.

We get that some kids need more time, space, practice, compassion, or understanding. Or maybe they need:

Less language and instructions

Pictures, gestures and short cues instead of long sentences.

More movement

Built-in movement breaks, sensory tools, and active warm-ups.

More visuals

Visual schedules and modelling — we show, then they try.

A coach who'll connect

Someone who builds trust, learns each child, and helps them feel safe.

Jesse Parahi, Olympian and co-founder of Sense Team Sports
When therapy meets rugby

Our coaches aren’t your average coach.

Founded by Occupational Therapist Carlien Parahi and Australian Rugby Sevens Olympian Jesse Parahi, Sense Rugby pairs experienced paediatric OTs with trained rugby players to help kids achieve success in a safe, neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, strengths- and play-based environment.

  • Occupational Therapists
  • Speech Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Exercise Physiologists
  • Physiotherapists
  • Trained rugby players

Our promise

Sport can be therapy.

So we take it to the field at your local club — connecting you and your family to a lifelong community. Because you deserve to belong and feel safe too.

Let’s kick it offSee our locations