Books Down as it is Time to Get Rugby Balls Out

Books Down as it is Time to Get Rugby Balls Out

Indonesian Rugby hosted Ismail ‘Izzy’ Kadir from the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) over the past weekend to assist the Union in promoting the IRB’s great new initiative known as “Get Into Rugby” (GIR) into a number of Indonesian schools. During his visit to the Jakarta region Izzy was assisted by Indonesian Rugby’s National Development Manager, Karina Soerjanatamihardja and former Indonesian National Team representative, Dwikie Pinontoan.

Izzy’s visit kicked off last Thursday with a visit to Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH) located at Karawaci, Tangerang, where 35 young boys aged 14-17 years old were introduced to the Play Modules of GIR. From all report this visit went extremely well and Sports Teacher, Bruce Comrie commented that he could see a lot of advantages in using GIR to train his Rugby playing lads.

On Friday morning, a visit was made to Darunnajah Persanteran in Jakarta where 27 young boys aged 14-17 years old, coached by popular figure Bahrul, were given an introduction to GIR. Later that afternoon a visit was made to the Singapore International School (SIS) where 6 girls and 15 boys aged 9-16 years old were given their first ever introduction to Rugby. These children were given an opportunity to participate in GIR Try Modules and from the smiles in the picture above it is all too easy to see how much these kids enjoyed themselves.

Indonesian Rugby realises that in order for GIR to be a success it requires coaches who know how to teach children the benefits of GIR, so on Saturday morning Izzy carried out a ‘Train the Trainer’ programme at SIS. This session was attended by 10 teachers (1 lady and 9 gent) from schools such as ACG International, Jakarta International School (JIS), SIS and SPH. Additionally on Sunday, Izzy conducted an IRB Rugby Ready and Level 1 Coaching Course for 2 ladies and 11 gents at JIS.

Izzy’s final point of call during his visit was Sekolah Bogor Raya (SBR), south of Jakarta, where 11 boys aged 14-17 were given a GIR coaching session. Indonesian Rugby stalwart and SBR Teacher, Robert McKinnon was very happy to host Izzy, Karina and Dwikie to assist his young charges.

In summary the numbers of persons participated over the weekend:

  • Boys = 88
  • Girls = 6
  • Men = 20
  • Women = 3
  • Total = 117 persons

Indonesian Rugby would like to thank Singapore International School and the Jakarta International School for the great facilities that they provided for the various training courses. The Union would also like to thank all the schools and the persons who participated over the past weekend, as well as Karina and Dwikie for all their help. Last but not least many thanks to Izzy Kadir* and ARFU for their continued support of Indonesian Rugby. 

*It is hoped that Izzy can visit Bali in mid-October 2014.