Mr. Herbert Mensah, newly elected President of the Ghana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), commended the historical two-week training programme in Accra, Ghana in association with the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the Olympic Solidarity Fund (OSF), to improve the quality of Rugby coaching in the country.

According to the President it was a historical day of a week in which Ghana Rugby entered a coaching programme for the first time in 11 years of its existence to qualify coaches of Ghana Rugby to a Level 2 status.

This historic event has been made possible by the IRB which is sponsoring the cost of a Certified IRB Trainer from South Africa, Mr. David Dobela, and the cost of sponsorship for the training by the OSF under the auspices of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC).

Mr. David Dobela is currently the Caretaker Head Coach of Border Academy in South Africa and has qualified as Level 2 Coaching Trainer in 2010. He has also been involved in coaching for the South African National Team, the Springboks.

The training is taking place at the Media Centre at the Accra Sports Stadium from July 13 to 25, 2014.

During the first week, 20 coaches were trained as Level 1 Rugby Coaches. The trainees included coaches from the 11 clubs that will take part in the 2014 /15 national league tournament, as well as Sportsmasters of 12 schools from the Greater Accra, Western and Central Regions.

The Level 1 Rugby Coaching Training included modules on Understanding the Game and the principles of play, Applying the principles of play to the development of skills, Planning and demonstrating a practice and Management and will cover both 15s as 7s coaching skills.

This course is designed to enable coaches to acquire basic skills so that players new to the game learn to play in safe, enjoyable competition.

The training this week includes 13 coaches attending a Level 2 Coaching course that includes modules on Coaching styles and coaching process, Values of the Game and principles of attack and defence, Planning and delivery, Key factor analysis and player welfare and Functional role analysis, selection and Laws.

The Level 2 Coaching course is designed to provide coaches with the skills needed to coach teenage and adult players in the club or school environment (in major Unions) and to higher levels in less developed Unions such as the GRFU.

Having attended this historical first day of Level 2 coaching training the newly elected President of Ghana Rugby, Mr. Herbert Mensah, again emphasised that the newly elected Board of the GRFU is in a process of assessment of the state of Rugby in Ghana with the view to present a blueprint or roadmap for Rugby in Ghana to all stakeholders towards the end of July 2014.

Mr. Mensah again said, “It was quite shocking to realise that Ghana does not have one Level 2 certified coach after 11 years of being registered as minority sport in Ghana. Without properly trained coaching resources Rugby in Ghana can never progress. This will always continue to be a high priority on the agenda of the new Board and we are delighted that we had the opportunity to postpone the initial dates for the training in order to structure it in such a way that there is forward movement.”

Mr. Mensah also said that he was highly impressed with both the quality of training by Mr. David Dobela and with the commitment and enthusiasm of the coaches attending the course.