Rugby should be fun!

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 44, 21 April 1987, Page 16

Rugby should be fun!

Rugby coaching coordinator Bill Freeman visited Ohakune Primary school last week to instil a bit of fun into the school rugby players as well as pass on some ball handling skills.

Mr Freeman has been the coaching coordinator for the New Zealand Rugby Union for the last ten years, which means he has done a great deal of travelling around the country as well as around the world. He regularly visits rugby players in the Pacific Islands as the area is within the NZRFU. Mr Freeman visits the USA at least once a year to coach there and recently visited Japan at the request of Toyota to coach the Toyota Factory Rugby team. The emphasis is on the fun of the game with Mr Freeman's coaching sessions, as could be seen at Ohakune Primary School last Wednesday. The boys were full of enthusiasm at the session, and were seen to be inspired

by the energy of the 62 yearold coach. He says if you don't enjoy the game there 's no way you will be good at it. To add a bit of extra fun to his coaching session he showed the players how "he saw people greeting each other in New York". The greeting, which could in no way be described as a hand shake, involved smiling, raising one hand skyward, then bringing it down to knee level to shake the other persons ankle while he does ihe same to you! Mr Freeman was assisted at the session by Eric Wier, the coaching executive for the Wanganui union, Robert Cleaver, the Northern Wanganui Subunion president, Ken George, Wanganui

selector-coach and Wayne Marsh, Ruapehu College 1st 15 coach.