Papua has long been seen as a rugby nursery for Indonesian Rugby but due to its remoteness it has somewhat remained isolated. However it is hoped that the ‘sleeping giant’ region of Indonesian Rugby will now be able to grow and develop thanks to assistance from the IRB’s Get Into Rugby (GIR) programme which has already been successfully launched in the Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Tangerang and Bali regions of Indonesia.

A group of 20 Papuans (8 males and 12 females) from the Timika and Jayapura regions were given an introduction to GIR via a ‘Train the Trainer’ session coached by Steve Barber from PRUI on Saturday October 11 in Bali.

The participants were given a verbal introduction to the programme by Steve Barber, who was ably assisted by former Indonesian National Team player, Niko who acted as a translator. All the participants were then given a chance to have a go at a few GIR training drills. Throughout the training session there were plenty of smiles as all of the participants enjoyed themselves.

Steve Barber explained to assembled group how he has coached 20-25 young girls from the Mama Sayang Orphanage through the GIR programme from Module 1-8 and described how much they had improved thanks to the programme. He hoped that the same benefits would be experienced by Papua Rugby over the coming months.

Following the training session, PRUI Vice Chairman, Fikri Al-Azhar and PRUI National Development Manager, Karina Soerjanatamihardja, presented George Deda and other senior figures from Papua Rugby with two GIR kits to be used in Timika and Jayapura.