Three World Rugby Trainers under leadership of Denver Wannies (South Africa) with Johnbosco Muamba (Kenya) and Dr Ben Mahinda embarked on a historic mission in Ghana to start training local candidates to also become Trainers.

According to Ghana Rugby President and Board Chairman, Herbert Mensah, the occasion was momentous as it will liberate the Union from the need to wait for the availability of Rugby Africa Trainers to undertake Level 1 training of coaches in Ghana.

“Given the ambitious drive to penetrate schools with the World Rugby “Get Into Rugby” (GIR) youth education programme and plans for the expansion of rugby to new Regions in Ghana our need for GIR Courses and Level 1 Coaching courses is huge. This need can only be met if we can become independent from scarce Rugby Africa Trainers who are inundated with requests for training from more than 30 other African nations,” Mr. Mensah said.

Mr. Wannies, a World Rugby Master Trainer that is part of an elite squad of only seven other similarly qualified Trainers, came to Ghana to qualify a number of Level 2 Rugby Coaches, another first for Ghana Rugby.

His mission to Ghana also included the identification of potential candidates that may be developed into World Rugby Educators.

Three such candidates were selected that includes Head Coach of Ghana Rugby, Lovemore ‘Dallas’ Kuzorera; Clement Dennis who is the Technical Director of the CentWest Rugby Association and Rafatu Inusah, Board Member and Women’s Representative.

Another area of need in Ghana, match officiating, was covered by Mr. Muamba who undertook two Level 1 Match Officiating courses as well as a new injury prevention course, Activate.

Dr Mahinda was part of the squad and undertook three “First Aid In Rugby” (FAIR) courses.

Mr. Wannies will be back in Ghana on the 4 March, 2020 when he will join Steph Nel, World Rugby Services Manager for Africa, and Charles Yapo, Rugby Africa Development Manager for West Africa on a visit to review Ghana Rugby’s development strategy