The Te Rarawa JMB Rugby Club has a plan to upskill not only their players but also their coaches and they have been working with Northland Rugby Union RDO Ben Wiki to achieve this goal. Lesley Wallace Community Sport Advisor for Kaitaia commented “The club has identified the experiences of players as vital to retaining p[layers long term, this has caused them to focus on coaching to enhance the players experiences.”

 As a target club Sport Northland has assisted the club to connect with the NRU to provide the coaching support to the keen parent volunteers from the community.

All of the clubs junior coaches have been through the NZRU Small Blacks course, attended a coaches forum and have had practical workshops delivered to their teams by NRU. 

The next step in development is to attend the NZRU Level 2 coaching course as well as an Introduction to Rugby Referee course, both of which are delivered by NRU later this year.

“The club is confident that this investment in coaching will prove to be successful in retaining membership through all grades” enthused Wallace.

Photo - U7 Coach James Tattersall taking up the whistle as well