Helping Develop Youth Rugby in Thailand
Author: Webmaster
The weekend of 24th & 25th January saw the first southern regional Youth Rugby coaching weekend hosted by the Phuket Vagabonds, Thai Youth Rugby Foundation & the Old Bangkok Bangers.
Author: Webmaster
A busy weekend in Petchaburi was organised to coach 130+ kids (mainly girls) more about the art of rugby, but the anti-democracy demonstrations that forced Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports to close, meant that all our coaches for the weekend were stuck in either New Zealand or the UK. After being plyed with Indian food and a couple of beers, Jase agreed to help out.
Kids at Petchaburi
Author: Webmaster
This weekend saw the Xpotential U15 challenge, run in association with next weekend’s International Bangkok 7’s, being contested at Bangkok Patana School. Several teams were again sponsored by ThaiYouthRugby.com to enable them to travel to the city to participate in what turned out to be two great days of rugby played in conditions that ranged from extreme hot sun to torrential rain. However the weather did not deter anyone and play continued regardless - of course those with boots were at a significant advantage in the rain! This just illustrates further how vitally important our old kit pledges are - We ran out of boots to give this weekend so a few boys had to play barefoot or borrow from players in other schools. So any donations always welcome and appreciated by the kids (contact us - info@thaiyouthrugby.org)
Author: Webmaster
These weekend rugby courses are just getting bigger every month. This weekend in Loei we were faced with 240 kids from 11 north-east schools, many travelling long distances to attend (One school travelled 12 hours in a bus from various towns near the Cambodian border). We had kids from Ubon Ratchathani, Roi Et, Burriram, Si Saket, Maha Sarakham, Yasothon and Surin joing local kids from Loei and “neighbouring” Udon Thani (2 hours).
Loads at Loei
Author: Webmaster
Weekend number three was in Surat Thani in the south of Thailand on the 6th and 7th of September. Eight guys made the trip south (Andy & Gong, Heath (Khun ‘Sut Law’), Bob, Jase and a strong NZ presence in Pete, and the two Fisher boys, John & Nick) and about 120 kids from age 12 to 17 attended over the two days. Everyone was impressed with the way the kids took the sessions to heart and the proof came when we had the inter-schools comp on the Sunday afternoon. But, more impressive was the spirit in which these games were played (even during a rainstorm). There were some outstanding young players, and some outstanding team efforts. Many of the kids arrived barely knowing what rugby was, but all went away Rugby Players! Read the rest of this entry »
Author: Webmaster
The second coaching weekend took place in Phrae on the 16th & 17th of August and the stories from Udon brought out an international team of Andy C (England) , Andy McDowell (Thailand) , Gong (Thailand), Carlos (Fiji), Heath (USA), Alan (Scotland), Steve S ( England) and John F (New Zealand) who made the trip north for the weekend, where some 200 kids were given a good grounding in the game, but more importantly, had loads of fun.
Author: Webmaster
As if these weekend trips were not enough, Andy has also recently agreed to coach young players at Rangsit University one night a week. So every Thursday evening Andy can be found at the campus putting 20 lads through his drills. It will be interesting to see how they fare this year. In their first training game they narrowly lost to Kasetsart University who last year whooped Rangsit by 60 points. This year saw the game finish 15 – 20. So good signs already.
Author: Webmaster
This seasons first event was in Udon Thani on the 26th & 27th of July where around 75 kids rucked up for the weekend and were rewarded with a great weekend of rugby. The Thai expat rugby network threw up Justine Brown a former Golden Gloves Aussie and an enthusiastic supporter of rugby. Justine runs a bar in Udon (The Aussie Bar) and eagerly volunteered his services and three of his bar’s best Aussie and Kiwi customers to help out.
Author: Webmaster
Throughout 2007, seven weekend coaching clinics in five up-country provinces were organised and attended by a total of 1658 kids and 43 school coaches, from which we are delighted to report nine new school teams have been formed in addition to the strengthening of all the existing teams. Read the rest of this entry »