UAE Rugby Federation unites Asia Rugby through a mega Get Into Rugby campaign

For the first time ever, the campaign saw 24 presenters from nine unions across Asia deliver the introduction to Get Into Rugby course through eight concurrent online Zoom calls.

Sami Smara, Development and Training and Education manager at UAERF spearheaded and launched a massive campaign to introduce the Get Into Rugby programme to new Physical Education teachers in the UAE.

For the first time ever, the campaign saw 24 presenters from nine unions across Asia deliver the introduction to Get Into Rugby course through eight concurrent online Zoom calls on 23 September, 2020.

Some 102 teachers joined the workshops remotely through Zoom.

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“The project, in collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Education took a lot of coordination and planning however I was fortunate that I got great support from Educators across all Asia, all the way from Singapore to Syria.” said Sami.

Acee San Juan, World Rugby Coach Educator and Development manager from Philippines Rugby commented that it is good to know that Philippine Rugby can always count on the Asia Rugby family when it needs support for Training and Education.

“I believe this campaign not only united presenters from across Asia but it also provided an opportunity for presenters to practice and develop their presentation skills.” said Sami.

Mohamad Jarkou, a World Rugby Coach Educator from Syria said: “It was a great opportunity to get more familiar with the Zoom meeting as host.”

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Mahfizul Islam Kanchon, World Rugby Educator and CEO of Bangladesh Rugby commented as follows: “The “New Normal” situations gave us that new experience.

That course showed the integrity of Educators in Asia Rugby. Thanks to Asia Rugby and UAERF for the opportunity.”

Benjamin van Rooyen, Asia Rugby’s Development Consultant believes that the success that UAERF has had with introducing rugby in the UAE curriculum in all public schools in the country is a model that most unions across the world aspire to achieve. “There is no better way to grow awareness of the game than to have all children try it out in curriculum time in schools.”

His sentiments were echoed by Saner Hasan, Rugby development officer for Doha RFC, Qatar saying “I am planning on putting a similar plan in place here in Qatar as well.”

UAERF will definitely continue to ensure that we will strive to continuously raise the level of understanding of rugby among MoE PE teachers and develop the Emirati player.

“We know there is so much we still have to do however, we look forward to achieving further success with the great support of our main sponsor HSBC” said Sami, who is already planning to train over a thousand teachers over the next 4 years, on using World Rugby’s Coaching Children and translated Rugby Rules Arabic resources.

Article On World Rugby Get Into Rugby Page: Link