The Investec International Rugby Academy completed a very successful Advanced Coaches and Players course held at Paarl Gymnasium School in Paarl ( Western Cape) in June. We had players and coaches from all over the country and most of South Africa’s leading rugby schools were represented.
Although it was a cold and wet start to the course, things soon heated up with the players being put through some intense sessions. Ian Macdonald’s “Breakdown Session” was once again world class with some of the latest techniques on how to master this area. Pieter de Villiers ( French Prop) was also on hand to work with the players and coaches and educate them about the scrum and the intricacies involved. The Australian kicking coach; Braam van Straaten added his vast knowledge on the kicking game and with the latest technology he has available, soon made huge in-roads into improving the kickers techniques. Gary Gold also presented to the coaches and it was great to have that sort of knowledge shared amongst our coaches by the Springbok assistant coach.
It was a fantastic setting for a fantastic course and the players came up against a top rate Paarl Gymnasium team in the match. They displayed great guts and determination with the final score favouring Paarl Gymnasium 36 – 31.
As the majority of schools enter their last few matches of the season, they will no doubt take the vast amount of knowledge they have acquired on this course back to their playing environments and help to improve these teams immensely.
Thank you to our position specific coaches Ashley Evert, Brent Russell, Werner Swanepoel, Jerome Paarwater, Braam van Straaten, Louis Koen, Pieter de Villiers and Macneil Hendricks.