FIRA-AER National Coaching Conference & Sevens Refereeing Workshop, Amsterdam, 10-13 November 2011.

11/11/2011 - 27/06/2012

On 10th November delegates of the above assembled at the NRB National Rugby Centre for the opening of the Conference & Workshop. FIRA-AER President, Jean-Claude Baque & NRB President Willem de Jong started the conference and welcomed the delegates. The Conference was a sequel of the 2010 Coaching Conference focusing on Rugby Sevens.  

Referees at the Workshop focused on their development and preparation towards the 2012 FIRA-AER Sevens Grand Prix Series. The Referees were facilitated by Patrick Robin (FIRA-AER), Bernd Gabbei (IRB) & the new IRB Sevens World Series Referee Manager, Steve Lander.

Mark Egan (IRB) attended the first day of the Conference to present to the delegates the IRB Sevens Strategic Plan and the model for Olympic 2016 qualification. Douglas Langley (IRB/FIRA-AER) also informed delegates of the FIRA-AER 2012 Sevens tournaments for Women & Men including the Qualification process for the 2013 Sevens Rugby World Cups.

22 coaches attended the Conference from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland & Ukraine. 10 Referees attended the Workshop from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal & Romania.

On the second day of the Conference, Women’s National Sevens Coach, Gareth Gilbert presented the NOC/NRB High Performance Project to the Coach delegates looking at player transfer, talent identification and development pathways. Gareth then coached the Dutch National Women’s Team along with French Men’s National Coach, Thierry Janeczek. Coaches discussed their findings from the information given and their observations. The Referees focused the second day on observations and evaluation of referee performance at the 2011 FIRA-AER Sevens Grand Prix Series.

The Conference and Workshop concluded with the Coaches on their 3rd day working mainly with the Dutch Women’s National Sevens Team. After working with Steve Lander the coaches then focused on Sevens specific fitness and in the afternoon they had opportunity to plan and practise Sevens coaching on the players. Whilst the Coaches coached the Referees had an opportunity to practise what they had learnt on the Workshop by officiating Sevens matches between the NRB regional academies at the National Rugby Centre. Many thanks must go to Eric Voet at the NRB for organising this. On the final day, the Referees worked with Bernd Gabbei whilst the Coaches worked with Patrick Robin.

FIRA-AER and the delegates would like to thank the NRB for hosting the Conference & Workshop, especially Jacqueline Reus for her administrative support