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Rugby in South Korea!

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We traveled all the way to Jeju-do to run a rugby clinic on scrum!

After having decided on a holiday in South Korea the informal rugby network set me up for a guest appearance at the prestigieus North London Collegiate School on Jeju Island. We got a wonderful reception by the School’s rugby coach Sebastien Crebier and he asked me to work on introduction on a 3v3 scrum preparing for a Sevens tournament later in November. It turned out to be a great experience for me and I like to think the team!

North London College

A big campus, artificial grass pitch, lots of equipment and since rugby is extra curriculum, the players showing up have already made a conscientious decision to embrace the sport. Some of them were second and third years, but half of them were first timers joining the training squad only recently. The age group was 16-18 years old and as usual some big boys were part of it. I think we had something like 25 players in total.

Scrum Ready!

Scrummaging obviously big part of my Level 3 & 4 education, but when detailing the learning model for Scrum in SuperCoach Online I made good use of the Scrum Ready document of World Rugby. So not a scrummer myself I like to think I was well prepared to detail the mechanics and work with the team. Scrum Ready is set-up exactly for these situations: do a bit of related work in the warm-up, and go from 1v1, 2v1, 3v2 to 3v3.

How did it work for this group?

It was a great experience for both me and the boys. We decided to have all the players be part of this, and we kicked it all off. Observations:

  • The approach was a fit for the situation, Scrum Ready progression really works;
  • The players were very open minded, listened with intend and tried hard to work on what I demoed;
  • The athleticism was far above what I would call average here in the Netherlands;
  • Working hard but also be kind to each other and joyful when in the learning process things got messed up a bit;
  • The adaption to the new stuff was surprisingly quick! Some good scrummagers emerged!
  • Looking at the very expensive cars in the car park was not sure what kind of players to expect, but these boys did not mind to go fully at it and give it all!

Obviously we ended with a game and used scrum for all restarts. I think gameplay was good with a lot of intensity and good ambition to bring the ball forward. The school’s rugbycoach Sebastien did good work! The energy was so good, when asked the players agreed to continue beyond the normal time slot (and I guessed some of them had to re-organise the travel home choosing to miss the last bus!)

“That Moment!” Coaching and reflection

I am a strong believer that highlighting positive aspects of play is far better then simply identifying and telling what goes wrong. So I am always on high alert to take that opportunity to show what makes a team tick. This time it was a player make a break after a good side-step. He was off balance and stumbled and tripped. It was a bit funny to watch, but one of his teammates reacted very swifty, converged to his position, received the ball with a pop-up pass and finished to play with an easy run in. Me then rewinding the play and saying things like “We can stand and laugh, or we can simply accept the new situation, adapt, and go and support your teammate and be successful as a team” and “In rugby we support each other, good or bad”. Always good to see that sink in!

The Rugby Curriculum

After the session I discussed the rugby situation in South Korea and the school’s rugby program with Sebastien Crebier. He explained more about the set-up and the season. Being on the Jeju Island there are limited opportunities for practise games and only a short season with 10s and 7s games. He can be very proud of what he achieved with the little available time to him. With those limitation he has difficult choices to make on what to prioritise and what to leave out. For that tournament in Malaysia I obviously do not know the opposition, but I am convinced he and the team should do very well .

And to be honest, a bit jealous of him, working with players with this enthusiasm, open mind and hard working ethic.

Related material

  • Take a virtual tour of the NLCS campus;
  • Thanks for having me Sebastien Crebier, and many thanks Yoon Sok Hee for setting this up;
  • The Scrum Ready resource on World Rugby Passport site for us coaches;

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