oct.26.2009

Trinidad and Tobago Rugby Football Union(TTRFU) selection committee member Larry Mendez attended the first ever sevens rugby coaching course orgainized jointly by the IRB and the Pan American Sports Organization(PASO).The course held in Buenos Aires,Argentina was fully funded by PASO and the National Olympic Committees, thirty participants attended.

The countries represented were Canada (Morgan Williams, new men's coach), USA (Sue Parker, current Women's Coach), Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Dutch Antilles, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Paraguay, Colombia, Saint Vincent, Argentina (new coach, Nicolas Fernandez Lobbe) and Paraguay.

Four of the coaches had no rugby coaching experience at all but, having been top class coaches for over 20 years in other sports like soccer and swimming, they were selected by their respective NOCs.

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC)president Larry Romany is confident that PASO will work closely with the IRB in the years leading up to RIO 2016 to make sure that the Americas region develop the sevens rugby coaching intellect that will ensure that 7s rugby in PASO is at a high standard.

Recently the TTRFU with support from the Ministry of Sport secured the services of a New Zealand Technical Advisor(Murray Roulston) to work with local rugby coaches and the T&T national 7s rugby team.Roulston will initially spend three months in T&T. The T&T Olympic head said that this is an important first step.

" The local coaches and players will benefit. No amount of certification can make up for high level experience.If you are going to provide the local coaches and players with foreign support it has to be with people from one of the leading IRB Rugby nations with a verifiable track record either at the rugby world cup or professional level ." said Romany.

Romany also revealed that rugby will have to meet the TTOC's fitness criteria for upcoming multi sport games under the auspices of the TTOC.
"In 2002 and 1998 we were a bit lenient with rugby. This time all players will have to meet the TTOC fitness criteria .There will be no exceptions to the rule."added Romany