The technical and evaluation week titled IRB super week comes to an end on the 22nd of June with the participating of Gene Tong and Matthew Oakley as representatives from the International Rugby Board.
The super week which was scheduled to rise up the practical skills and evaluate the technicalities was held at the Havelock’s Sports club from 17th – 21st June with the participation of coaches and various sport personalities from all over the county.
For the second time the SLRFU organized the super week to enhance the knowledge of Sri Lanka coaches; the motive being uplifting the standards of the coaches. Level 1 match officials and level 2 match officials went under a timely training process which is deemed necessary for the progress of Rugby. An added feature is that this facilitated an evaluation on the 22nd of June before summing up the session providing a generalization on how much they have gained overall.
The SLRFU have taken into account the limited knowledge the outstation coaches and is working on spreading the effects of the super week all over the island. Apart from Kandy the rest of the country should also fulfill the knowledge requirements in-order to produce good players to the national level, and this will allow the various district participants to spread the knowledge.
The super week has been welcomed by many current tuskers from the national squad who are not coaches yet. The goal of getting these players is to give them the idea of coaching by the time they leave the game as players. They had been going through training under different coaches, mostly foreign ones; yet proper coaching techniques can fulfill the requirements they need for a successful coaching career. Also the IRB super week is to bring to light separate coaching for 15 aside and 7 aside. Although followed by certain leading clubs in Kandy and Colombo the required skills for all the coaches to do training separately was initiated at the super week.
“The sessions were indeed productive. Having an educator perspective I am glad to see the amount of time and energy the coaches put in to work their way up in rugby coaching. IRB level 1, 2 and 3 are interrelated. They can share the knowledge and work up the ladder which is an immense amount of knowledge.”Sanath Martis the senior local coach speaking to ThePapare team on the IRB super Weak.
“This is my second time in Sri Lanka to be part of the IRB super week. In contrast to what I witnessed the last time I can see lot of ground work done this year, the no. of participants have drastically improved. I think the local educators deserve credit for that. The local participants are very enthusiastic” were the remarks made by Gene Tong the IRB Regional Training Coordinator. He further mentioned that the clear passion of the participants was visible by them not only completing pre-assignments and online tests but doing them well.
Commenting on the local educators Mr. Tong noted they have gained more confidence and were rolling out high level courses in Sri Lanka itself. However Gene pointed out” if the facilities improve we can accommodate more participants easily; problem being the classrooms and other basic needs being limited’. Elaborating, he stated ‘the enthusiasm is actually sign that a lot of Sri Lankans are eager to gain knowledge which is a conducive sign for sports”. Even the chief coach, Sanath Martis himself seconded the statement saying this time though the expectations were to hold the super week to approximately 40 participants the total no. increased to a 70 odd.
Since it’s not productive to be too selective in a case as such Gene’s advice was to have local training sessions to accommodate the needs of the amateur participants. Also to have bigger facilities that can accommodate these needs should be provided by the organizing committee.
Lastly the regional educator also spoke of a rugby culture that has been engrained for over a century. He added “The rugby union I believe is responsible for up skilling the sport so far. We as the IRB will be glad to help such a union which takes courage to instill the sport as a lifestyle here. One last thing increase the number of officials, this will be helpful.”
It should be also noted the event was solely organized under the support of the IRB and the SLRFU without any sponsors.
