This past week has been another exciting week for the WPRFU as our DHL Stormers had a successful trip to Nelspruit and our clubs are excited about the possible return to training.
Last week Wednesday saw our DHL Stormers fly to Johannesburg followed by a five-hour bus trip to Nelspruit to take on the Phakisa Pumas in the Vodacom Super Rugby unlocked competition. Although we had some setbacks during the week our team defied the odds with a 28 point unanswered scoring spree to win 42-37 over a very spirited Phakisa Pumas side in very humid conditions.
This result places us third on the log with a match in hand. We now travel to Loftus Versfeld to take on the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday. This North vs South clash has traditionally been one of South Africa’s biggest derbies and we wish Coach John Dobson and his team the best of luck.
On the club rugby front, this week has seen us engage an extra gear as we began the preparation for WP club rugby return to training. This comes after SA Rugby announced a fortnight ago that clubs could return to training under the required guidelines.
Although there are many factors to consider and several regulations that clubs need to comply with the primary factor is the appointment of a club compliance officer. Each club is required to have an approved compliance officer in place who will take responsibility for the facility and player welfare.
This week saw us begin weekly workshops on COVID compliance and various regulations we require to be in place before a club may return to training. These regulations amongst others include pre-training screening, sanitization and record keeping.
In addition to the education on club health and safety, we will also assist our clubs with the administration of the process through the use of various online forms and database tools. Our next workshop will take place on Tuesday, 3 November 2020 in the Railway Mall from 18h30 at DHL Newlands.
Coaches and compliance officers are reminded to do the World Rugby online COVID awareness certificate. Please click here for the link.
Our focus on coaching remains in effect as we will now rollout coaching courses specific to women. These courses will run in addition to the courses we are about to host under the guidance of our head of coaching education Nazeem Adams. The deadline for coach Nazeem’s first course being World Rugby level one is 30 October, with the first course set for next week 6 November 2020. Here is the link https://passport.worldrugby.org Please send your registration queries to Nazeem Adams on nazeem@wprugby.co.za
These women’s rugby level one courses which are dedicated to women coaches will start on 5 December as we look to contribute to the acceleration of the global development of women’s rugby. This will help us fast track women’s coaches and the growth of women’s rugby at club level.
Last year saw us with eight women rugby club structures and each year sees us look to clubs to apply for women teams. Towards the end of November, we will host a meeting to promote additional women’s teams at clubs.
Currently, the minimum requirements for a women’s team at club level is thirty-five women players above the age of eighteen. We urge women who wish to start playing rugby and join a club to get in touch with us at the WPRFU so that we may put you in touch with a club near you.
In addition to these exciting initiatives, our DHL WP Rugby women’s squad of approximately forty players will shortly begin training once per week. These training sessions will be held by DHL WP Rugby women’s team strength and conditioning coach Migiel Coetzee under the guidance of head coach Laurian Johannes Haupt. Laurian is off course currently doing national duty with the SA Rugby women’s team.
On a slightly more social note, we wish to notify our members of the Legend Runner event taking place in Paarl on 6-8 November. This event is a fun obstacle race which takes place in the heart of Paarl with a choice of 6km or 12km obstacle trail course along the Berg River and Arboretum. For every entry we will receive a revenue return from the event. Please visit Legend Runner to sign up and use the code “WPRUGBY“.