At least 22 local rugby coaches underwent a two-day level-one coaching course at St. Andrew’s International High School in Blantyre last weekend.
Upon successful completion of the training conducted by Rugby Africa development officer Kenyan Erick Situma, the coaches will become the first crop of certified trainers for the country’s rugby teams.
According to Rugby Union of Malawi (RUM) chairperson Gus Banda, the training will help to improve overall performance in the Super Halaal Rugby League, which had all but one of the 12 participating teams guided by uncertified coaches in the just-ended season.
He said the development of coaches is one of the programmes they have been working on with assistance from the Sports Council in order to meet certain standards to be accepted back as an affiliate of the World Rugby Federation since the local rugby governing body was established six years ago.
“We are determined to improve the standards of the sport in the country by getting more athletes into the game and developing local coaches so that we can be accepted back into the world rugby family for the first time in 20 years,” Banda said.
Situma said Malawi is on the right path to getting a quick acceptance in global rugby due to its keen interest to invest in the youth.
“All the individuals taking part in this coaching course are the youth and this shows Malawi’s interest to rapidly develop the sport,” he said.
The only female participant of the course Linda Chibisa from Luchenza said she will benefit a lot from the training and she thanked RUM and Rugby Africa for coming up with the ‘Get into Rugby’ coaching programme.
