Update from Kim Oliver
Since arriving in Gibraltar last September, I have coached in both the Comprehensive schools and all the middle schools.
Bayside Boys Comprehensive School seemed like it was going to be a huge challenge due to the demand for football. We started the first week by working on passing backwards which can be difficult to grasp if you have never played rugby before, the boys seemed to pick this up pretty quickly so we played a few games of offload touch which the boys enjoyed but what they really wanted was to try contact. Once I introduced tackling the excitement and enthusiasm really increased.
The boys were asking for contact every week and once we had gone through the basic tackle technique and safety points it was time for them to get stuck in! We started with 1v1 tackling games which really helped to build their confidence and I could see they were really starting to enjoy the physical aspects of rugby.
I increased the amount of contact each week and by the fourth and final week I split them into small teams and just let them play. Due to it only being a four week programme I did not have time to introduce the ruck but that is definitely something I will be looking at in the future at Bayside and hopefully I will be able to create an inter-house tournament.
Westside Girls Comprehensive School had a slightly different twist as it is tag rugby that they play.
The girls did have an idea of passing backwards and running forward but again they found this difficult and frustrating at first.
As the weeks went by the girls started to understand the game more and more and I started to see some fantastic running and support lines. Their handling skills were of good quality and some of the passing and catching skills were rather impressive. The girls in the older years were pretty keen on trying tackling and I hope this is something we can introduce in the future.
I have really enjoyed coaching in the middle schools, the boys and girls really enjoy playing tag rugby type games and their enthusiasm and energy is endless. Some of the boys play rugby out of school and these boys were a great help for the others in the class, always encouraging and giving advice to the less experienced players. Once we introduced proper games of tag the competitiveness really began to show and there were some very impressive handling and running skills from both the experienced boys and girls and also the less experienced. Scoring tries seemed to give the children an extra boost and the smiles on their faces when they were running with the ball in hand was a lovely sight to see.
It is obvious to me that the inter-school tag tournament next year is going to be extremely competitive with the boys and girls scoring lots of tries with huge smiles all round!!
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