Coaches’ conference gets rugby season rolling

THE newly appointed Director of Rugby at the Cell C Sharks, Jake White, provided hundreds of school and club coaches from around the province with hives of information at the 2014 Discovery SharkSmart Coaches Conference at Growthpoint Kings Park on Friday 10 January.

The 2007 World Cup winning coach is an avid supporter of the idea of having coaching conferences such as Friday’s showpiece and was quick to add his name to the list of the day’s contributors involved when he was called upon recently.

The former Springbok and Brumbies mentor led the coaches through a number of drills that the Sharks can be expected to use this coming Super Rugby season and explained the intricacies of how they benefit the team by breaking down the various elements of play. As a former school master himself, White has been in similar shoes to those in attendance of the hugely successful 2014 edition of the annual coaching attraction and seamlessly related to his coaching colleagues on numerous levels.

Providing coaches from around the province with a centre that they can go to in order to obtain the necessary information for them to grow and develop is something White feels strongly about and is hoped will help build the game of rugby at schools around KwaZulu-Natal.

Coaches also received a short address from international referee Stuart Berry, who gave an insightful look at how referees around the globe interpret particularly the scrum laws. His succinct address provided coaches with the opportunity to understand and question various aspects of the scrum, a regularly contentious issue particularly at school level.