Date: 28/10/14
South African Rugby League has been hard at work in the past few weeks, embarking on an ambitious project to start qualifying all club coaches up to international standards. Working with the NRL and the AsiaPacific Rugby League Association, a long term project was initiated and Brian Greige, an international coaching moderator, has been sent to South Africa for 3 months to run various clinics and development programs.
Brian has been to two of the strongest provinces already (Gauteng and Mpumalanga), and also spend a lot of time with the National Coaching Staff and the national team, The Rhinos. He has also been doing coach and match official training. The results of the training was evident this past weekend when the Panthers (Mpumalanga) met the Bulls (Gauteng) and the match was a thrilling encounter with the Panthers narrowly beating the Bulls in a game that saw the lead change more than 5 times.
Brian will now travel to Cape Town, and then back to the north of SA and spend additional time in the other provinces, as well as a few training camps with the Rhino’s to help them prepare for the upcoming test series against the British Community Lions.
Kobus Botha, president of SARL, was full of praise for the program: “It is imperative that SARL invests in its coaches, match officials and players through top level coaching. With the excellent support we have been getting from the AsiaPacific Rugby League Association and the RLIF, along with support from the NRL, we are now able to do just that. This extended coaching program is the start of a long term coaching and match official development initiative that we already see yielding positive results”
