Friends Of STAR

Date: Saturday 2nd April – Saturday 10th April 2011

Venue: 3rd – 4th April 2011 Sekolah Dato Abdul Razak, Seremban (SDAR) 6th – 9th April 2011 Sekolah Tunku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh (STAR)

Host/Client Schools: STAR and SDAR

Programme Management Consultants: Big Blue Link Sdn Bhd

Participants: Coaches and students at STAR, SDAR, coaches from other SBT schools, coaches and students from local schools within STAR and SDAR's former cluster groups

Training consultants: English National Schools' Team Coaches Rugby Football Schools Union (RFSU)

With support of: Malaysian Rugby Football Union, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Sport

Aim: To establish and develop Schools Rugby Centres of Excellence at STAR and SDAR.

Methodology: Rugby coaching knowledge delivery and transfer, observation and analysis of rugby matches involving client schools, establishment of national schools rugby/sports coaching libraries at STAR and SDAR through provision of resources by RFSU.

Background: STAR and SDAR are leading Malaysian rugby schools and regular winners of State and National Championships. As former Cluster schools, rugby was one of their 'Niche' areas supporting Cluster designation.

Since designation as High Performance Schools/SBT's, STAR and SDAR are seeking to further develop rugby as part of their High Performance School Programmes. Accordingly they reached agreement with Big Blue Link Sdn Bhd to organise a pilot project for the establishment of School Centres of Excellence at STAR and SDAR.

Big Blue Link through engaged three England coaching clinics at STAR and SDAR for eight days. its extensive professional development network Schools National Team coaches to lead rugby

Additional benefits delivered by the Pilot Project beyond improving the quality of rugby coaching and player development were intended to be meeting the High Performance School criteria of human resource development and internationalisation of STAR and SDAR's curriculum as well as meeting the KPI of English Language development for coaches and students through working with native English Language speakers.

England is a Tier 1 (top tier) rugby nation. The RFSU is affiliated to the English Rugby Football Union (RFU). England Schools are consistently with New Zealand the top two ranked schools rugby nations in the world. As well as being highly qualified and amongst the best rugby coaches in England, the England Schools Coaches recruited by Big Blue Link hold senior coaching positions within the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) and RFSU management, are qualified and experienced teachers holding senior positions within English Independent Schools, are coaches of top English schools rugby teams and have considerable experience of delivery of professional development training.

Programme details: The England coaches spent 9 days in Malaysia and 8 days delivering coaching rugby.

They watched 3 schools matches to analyse standards of play and technical development

They delivered 4 hours of coaching daily to coaches. They delivered 4 hours of coaching daily to students/players.

Total Training hours : 48 hours.

Outcomes:

1. Profile of Malaysia Rugby and Malaysia: Before arriving to deliver the programme the England coaches had limited knowledge of the existence of rugby in Malaysia beyond the COBRA international 10's. The England coaches were impressed by the degree of rugby development in Malaysia, the friendliness of all they came into contact with and the reception of their ideas by all they came into contact with.

Recommendations by England coaches:

• On their return to England the England Coaches will publish a report of their visit in the English RFU magazine 'Touchline'.

• The England Coaches will make a presentation on their visit and rugby in Malaysia at the National Independent Schools Rugby Conference and recommend Malaysia to English schools and rugby clubs as an exciting new venue for rugby tours.

• One of the coaches has engaged Big Blue Link to provide proposals for a tour to Malaysia for an U15 team from his school in March/April of 2012.

2. Standard of Rugby: the England coaches were impressed with the individual athleticism, speed and dynamism, physical commitment, standard of tackling and evasion skills of the student/players they observed playing matches and coached. Areas for development (weaknesses), included individual skills in contact, forward and back unit skills (scrums – body position, lineouts – variation of throws, organisation, blocking rucks – body position, speed of ball release, mauls – body position, when to maul) development of continuity play, development of game plans and decision making. Overall the England coaches felt that players and teams had great potential particularly for 7 a-side rugby internationally and 15 a-side rugby regionally. Coaches standards were variable form good to inexperienced. Many good questions were posed by local coaches on complex coaching points.

Recommendations by England coaches and STAR:

The England coaches watched two schools matches on arrival to analyse playing standards. At the end of the project they watched another match involving two of the same teams. Significant improvement in team play and individual skills were noted in the short time of the coaching clinics delivered by the project. However, player development is limited by the quality and experience of coaching and the recommendation is that the focus of development should be in this area.

• The establishment of an annual National Schools Coaching Conference for school and other coaches is necessary for the exposure of coaches to high level coach training.

• Secondment of coaches to English rugby playing schools for periods of up to 2 weeks was also recommended, the England coaches invited coaches at STAR and SDAR to their schools.

• An annual Malaysia and international schools 7 or 15 a-side tournament to be held in conjunction with the National Schools coaching conference.

• Incoming tours from schools and club youth teams from England and other Tier 1 nations would expose coaches and players to new ideas and techniques.

• The secondment of UK GAP students with rugby and other qualifications as teaching assistants would improve the general coaching of students whilst exposing them to English language spoken by native speakers.

Non-rugby - English language, internationalisation, network/relationships, future school partnerships

Logistical/Future planning & funding:

Conclusion: The pilot project was a success. Significant improvement was noted in the playing style of the client schools. The England coaches did not work with the age group teams that played in the closing match of the project. However, they had worked all week with the coaches of those teams and as noted above, it will be the development of coaches which will be limiting factor in the development of Malaysian school and youth rugby. Clearly the coaches had applied some of the coaching they had received during the week to their teams. Considerable discussion took place between the client schools, the England coaches and Big Blue Link and the recommendations made were on the basis of their being realistic and possible.

Steve Shortland / Michael Pyrgos / Andrew Marriott – Rugby Football Schools Union 25th April 2011