Around the Regions in March

A global snapshot of what’s going on in the world of Rugby

Asia

With snow lying thick on the ground and temperatures consistently stuck below zero, this time of year in Mongolia is not really conducive to playing the great Game of Rugby. However, in an effort to keep interest in the sport going through the long winter months, a snow league has started up giving players the chance to keep their skills sharp and fitness high when many of their competitors have their feet up in front of the fire.

Meanwhile, March is HSBC Sevens World Series month in Asia. As ever, the world’s eyes will be on Hong Kong from 22-24 March for one of the highlights of the season. The men’s teams then move on to Tokyo for round seven of the series on 30-31 March. Meanwhile in Guangzhou, China, the new IRB Women’s Sevens World Series hits Asia for the first time with large crowds expected at the Guangzhou University Stadium for the third round of the 2012-13 series.

The stadium first saw international Rugby Sevens action when it hosted the 2009 IOC Asian Games. The IRB has been working closely with the municipality to put on another world-class event, which is an integral part of the IRB’s and China RFU's strategy to grow the Game there.

On the last day of the month, ARFU’s 2013 men’s Fifteens competition programme begins with the first of three rounds of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Division 1 tournament, which is a Rugby World Cup 2015 qualifier event. Sri Lanka hosts Thailand, Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan in a week-long feast of test match rugby for the passionate Sri Lankan crowds at the Havelocks Rugby Club in Colombo.

Europe

The RBS 6 Nations concludes this month and, with two rounds remaining, England is on course for the grand slam. In their way stand Italy, who impressively turned over France at the start of the championship, and Wales, who will never be easy to beat, especially on their home patch in Cardiff.

And running alongside the 6 Nations is the European Nations Cup, which continues this Saturday with another series of what should be close encounters. In Division 1A, Spain will take the tough trip to Tblisi to face Georgia, Portugal host Russia and Belgium are at home to Romania.

Meanwhile, there have been a series of important trainer and educator courses run in the Europe region by IRB/FIRA-AER. In Luxembourg, four delegates from Georgia, Italy, Luxembourg and Russia attended the trainer course while 27 delegates attended the educator course from Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Trainers who receive their licence after the course will be able to assist with delivering educator courses in their own Union as well as work with educators on their continued development in that role. Those who receive their educator licence will be able to deliver relevant IRB/FIRA-AER Level 1 and 2 courses for coaches or match officials in their Unions.

The trainers delivering the courses were Mark Harrington (IRB), Kerstin Ljungdahl (Germany), Sean Mallon (Netherlands), Johnny Meersman (Belgium), Daniel Mitrea (Romania), Henrique Rocha (Portugal) and Douglas Langley (IRB/FIRA-AER).

Oceania

Oceania is centre stage this month in the global quest to improve the scrums at the elite level of the Game. An exciting trial is taking place in the Pacific Rugby Cup looking at a new way of reducing the velocity of the engagement and improving scrum stability.

Africa

The IRB Leading Rugby Programme took place in Cape Town last week, setting in motion an exciting initiative that supports Member Unions with training so as to develop the Game globally. The programme, which is coming to all regions in due course, is run in partnership with the regional association through workshops and support services bringing Unions together to share information and ideas on best-practice models.

The main aim of the workshops is to allow Unions to consider where they are now, key issues and challenges that they face and where they are heading over the next four years. It is also designed to review the key issues and models for developing Rugby and improving performance while also identifying the optimum leadership, business, marketing and operational strategies required for the Unions to achieve their goals. In an African context, a total of eight Unions were involved in this initial workshop, namely Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

North America/Caribbean

After making its debut in Africa late last month, the all-important IRB Leading Rugby Programme pops up Stateside in March with a crucial workshop taking place in Miami. The participating Unions for this strategic conference will be Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos.

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For more information contact:

James Fitzgerald, IRB Media Manager, +353-861-723-570, email james.fitzgerald@irb.com

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