February 2007
SCRUM SCHOOL February 2007
SCRUM SCHOOL FIJI
From the 25th to the 29th of January I was in Fiji running a series of clinics on scrummaging. I was there on the invitation of Peter Murphy the IRB High Performance Manager for Fiji and also Ilie Tabua the new Fijian National Coach. Congratulations to Ilie on his appointment he has previously been mentioned on this website as the “Snake”, well no more Ilie I will have to treat him with due respect. Ilie has a tough job being less than 7 months out from the World Cup and not being given any sort of handover by previous coach Wayne Pivac, who left Fiji suddenly.

Ilie would have to have one of the toughest international coaching assignments; it is really a logistic nightmare trying to get the best Fiji team on the field for the World Cup. Ilie has 52 players playing professional Rugby in Europe, he has to assess them then hope their clubs release them for World Cup duties. IRB regulations state that the European Clubs must release players for national duties, in reality this does not translate to practice, as all the Pacific countries will testify after the last World Cup.

Ilie then has to work with the National Fiji sport, 7’s, it really is the king of sports n Fiji, the only sport that they have been the best in the world in. There are not many countries in the world that show every game of the IRB 7’s series live, Fiji does. The whole country literally stops for the 3 days of the Hong Kong 7’s. You can safely say that none of the top 5 ranked IRB countries have any players in the IRB 7’s series that will play in the XV’s World Cup this year. Not so with Fiji, because of the cultural importance of 7’s there are a number of players in the Fiji 7’s squad who will be featuring in Fiji’s World Cup campaign. So Ilie also has to negotiate their time commitments for 7’s and 15’s.

Ilie also has some very good players in Japan, Super 14 and playing first grade in Australia and New Zealand. He has to provide them all with an opportunity to trial for the Fiji World Cup Squad and also negotiate their release from their various commitments.

Sound tough, don’t forget you also have to add in the local Fijian players who are playing in the Colonial Cup (Fiji’s Super 14) Ilie also has to provide them with an equal opportunity to trial for World Cup positions. Good luck to Ilie hope he puts all the pieces of the jigsaw together for the World Cup.

Peter Murphy the IRB High Performance Manager for Fiji will be of great assistance to Ilie. In less than 12 months he has already made his mark, the National Training Centre based at Sigatoka is nearing completion and the satellite centres based in Nadi, Sigatoka and Lautoka are already taking shape. Fiji has been in need of such facilities for many years and it is great to see the IRB funding being put to good use. Fiji need much stronger forwards and these weight training facilities will assist this.

The Scrum School went really well, the first two days the Under 19 and HPU Academy forwards and Colonial Cup Coaches attended. The training sessions were held at the University of the South Pacific, morning sessions in the lecture theatre and the afternoons on the field. The lecture sessions consisted of power point and video presentations with group exercises. The afternoon sessions consisted of individual skill practice then full scrum sessions. The improvement in the player’s skill levels over the two days was significant. The coaches’ level of questioning and grasp of techniques also improved significantly over the two days.

The third day of the Scrum School was open to all coaches and 70 of them showed up. It was great to see so many school and club coaches with such an interest in improving their knowledge of scrummaging. I met some of the coaches from Lelean School and accepted their invitation to take their lads for a scrum session (My nephew is also in their Rugby Academy). Certainly a pleasure to coach players so steeped in Rugby Tradition, Lelean are currently the top Rugby School in Fiji and holders of the Dean’s Trophy.

A big thanks to Pita Tagituimua who travelled with me from Australia to assist with the Scrum School. Pita assisted me at Penrith when I was First Grade Coach so has a good grasp of scrummaging techniques. He was a big help with his translation and rapport with the coaches and players. He also coached the Colonial Cup team the Highlanders and his scrummaging session was well received. Pita and I enjoyed a night being hosted by the Marist Club at Boscoe's Bar, a big thanks to my kava mixer "Bull" otherwise known as Oxford Street for reasons unknown.

As Fiji are noted all around the world for their skill at 7’s they are also noted for not being as skilful when it comes to tight forward play. Again certainly a cultural element to it, with most coaches admitting they could go a season without doing any scrum practice. Also financial constraints with scrum machines being expensive and also most players having no access to gym equipment. Peter Murphy with his IRB High Performance brief is trying to redress this imbalance by providing scrum machines and access to gym equipment in provincial centres. He is also up skilling the coaches by providing them with access to IRB Coaching Courses and access to coaching clinics such as my Scrum School.

It was good visiting Lelean as I immediately saw a way Fijian’s living abroad can assist in helping lift the standard of Fiji Rugby. Despite being the best Rugby School in Fiji, Lelean do not have a single piece of gym equipment. My old school St Joseph’s in Sydney has a million dollar gymnasium. Peter Murphy the IRB HPU Manager told me that this where Fiji has its biggest gap between Tier 1 Nations, the 16 – 19 year old age groups. The Lelean First XV player leaves school having never lifted a weight where as your Joey’s First XV player has been lifting weights for 3 years. Peter Murphy says the IRB are going to fund a satellite gymnasium at Lelean for the surrounding provinces, which is great.

I also spoke to some Lelean Old Boys in Sydney and they immediately went about raising some funds to also send some gym equipment to their old school. It would be great if all the Old Boys of Fiji’s top Rugby Schools such as Suva Grammar and Marist etc. also got together and got some gym equipment for their schools. Yes the Super 14 has started but I have not watched a match yet, I hate watching Super 14 but will get around to watching a match this weekend (Maybe).