NSW Rugby conducts educational tour to Japan
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008
NSWRU Media Unit
The expertise of the NSW Rugby Union has broadened its borders to Japan with some of the state's leading Rugby educators recently returning from a tour of the land of the rising sun.
HSBC Junior Waratahs Coach Joe Barakat works on technique.
HSBC Junior Waratahs Coach Joe Barakat works on technique.
Mike Doyle puts the Seagles through their paces.
Mike Doyle puts the Seagles through their paces.
Jamie McGregor conducts a Foundation Rugby course at Gakugei University.
Jamie McGregor conducts a Foundation Rugby course at Gakugei University.
Attentive players at the coaching clinic at Tokai University.
Attentive players at the coaching clinic at Tokai University.
Members of NSWRU's Coach Education (Mike Doyle, Expo Mejia), Referee Education (Jamie McGregor) and High Performance Unit (Joe Barakat, Yasuhiro Iijima) departments took part in the ten-day tour, with former Warringah first grade coach Eddie Wayling also in attendance as a Japanese liaison.
The NSWRU educators conducted two Level 1 Foundation Coaching courses, one at Toyota Industries in Nagoya where the Toyota Shokki Rugby Team is based, and one at Tokyo Gakugei University, with around 100 people attending the sessions.
Ayako Hoshino, from the Japanese Rugby Union, welcomed the contingent on behalf of the Japanese Rugby Union when she attended the Foundation Course in Tokyo. All the coaches that attended learnt a great deal about the game, in particular the laws of the game and technique at the breakdown.
A two-day coaching clinic was also conducted for 120 players at Tokai University's Shonan Campus for the University team, the Seagales.
"The coaching seminars were extremely beneficial to players as they concentrated on advanced technique and changes to the game that will result from the worldwide application of the ELVs starting in August," said NSWRU General Manager Development & Training, Mike Doyle. "We played a couple of brief opposed sessions and the playing philosophies of the two countries was immediately evident. The Japanese like to play with a lot of width in their attack which is really exciting and with more advanced coaching at all levels of the game could certainly make some big steps forward.
A DVD was made of the coaching sessions which will now be made available for distribution to coaches across Japan.
Following the coaching clinics at Tokai University, a three-day Level 2 Coaching Course was then conducted for 55 coaches to raise the expertise in this area of education.
"We were on the go the whole time we were there and it was pretty testing at times, in around 40C heat but you could instantly see how much the Japanese appreciated our take on the game and had a thirst to learn more from us," said Doyle. "We are happy to be given the opportunity to assist in countries that do not always have the same resources that we have, so actually getting on the ground and helping out personally we believe has had a fantastic impact.
"Toshi Kato from Eucaly Enterprise has to be thanked for organising and managing such a successful trip, and hopefully if the opportunity arises again we can help out more in the future."