Rugby in Malaysia continues to develop

Another successful week took place in Malaysia recently, with three major events running across the country. 122 teachers attended a two-day training course for the World Rugby Level 1 Coaching Course and also the Train the Trainer initiative.

The aim was to provide the teachers that are about to participate in the Get Into Rugby program and continue the work of developing the sport in the country.

The program is one of three planned for 2019 where the teachers will be provided with the expertise and motivation to help promote and teach rugby in Malaysia.

In Kuala Lumpur a Get Into Rugby clinic was also held in a school in Petaling Jaya. A total of 180 students from the school participated with the help of Yusli Ramli who is the assistant coach for the 15s senior team that are currently preparing for the 2019 Asia Rugby Championship.

The Bilal Get Into Rugby 7s was also held for U8s and U10s sides with a total of 42 teams participating.

The efforts were also supported and attended by Asia Rugby representative Benjamin Van Rooyen in an effort to grow the game in Asia.

Raimi Yusof, the Get Into Rugby program director, is pleased with the first quarter in Malaysia and hopes that the program will continue to expand to rural parts of the country with many more tournaments for the younger ages.

Benjamin Van Rooyen said: “Rugby is growing in Malaysia and MRU is working diligently to provide more playing opportunities for young players. MRU sanctions over 130 youth tournaments per year.

Encouraging unions to provide more playing opportunities is one of the pillars of Asia Rugby’s retention strategies.

I was fortunate to be involved in the pilot programme to deliver training to future teachers at a teachers training college. This is a model we want to replicate across Asia.”