Oceania Rugby SuperWeek Strengthens Rugby Development

Following on from the success of Oceania Rugby’s inaugural Super week conference in 2015 in Sydney the regional association is hosting its second such conference in Nadi, Fiji from February 9 to 11 attracting over 80 delegates from throughout the region.

Oceania Rugby is one of World Rugby’s six regional associations and is responsible for the continued devolopment of the Game in the Pacific region. The delivery of the Superweek conference and its associated workshops is a crucial part of the delivery of the Oceania Rugby Strategy. The Strategy’s aim is to address key issues relating to the game in the Oceania Region through continued collaboration across the 14 member Unions’ board members, key administrators and coaches.

This year’s Super week includes:

• Development workshop
• High performancee workshop
• Leading Rugby workshop for administrators and Board Members
• Sport Science & Sport Medicine conference

“One of the priorities of the Oceania Rugby Strategy is for greater collaboration by all our Member Unions in growing the game of rugby. The delivery of our second Superweek conference is an important milestone in that process and will go a long way to driving consistency and quality through the variety of development initatiatives that are delivered in the region” said William Glenwright, World Rugby Regional General Manager, Asia & Oceania.

“It’s an incredibly important year for rugby and for this region and the focus of this year’s Sports Science and Sports Medicine Conference and the High Performance Workshop is on the preparation of teams for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. With Australia, New Zealand and Fiji all having qualified Men’s and Women’s teams – and with Samoa, Tonga and Cook Islands all looking to join them – we want to provide our Unions with every opportunity to prepare to the best of their ability and bring back some Olympic Medals,” he added.

The regional Development conference is focussing on the growth of the women’s game. With women’s rugby experiencing continued growth in the region – 37% of the 67,000 participants of Get into Rugby in the Pacific Islands in 2015 were girls – the development conference will focus on helping Unions to build appropriate structures  and programs that ensure girls are provided with organised and fun environments in which to play.

The Leading Rugby conference is focussing on the governance and financial management of Member Unions. World Rugby recently announced major governance reforms which presents an opportunity for Unions such as Fiji, Samoa and Tonga to achieve representation on World Rugby Council. Oceania Rugby has recently introduced its own governance reforms process which will assist Member Unions in meeting the governance criteria attached to increased representation on World Rugby Council and Leading Rugby is an important step in the implementation of those reforms.

The Member Unions of Oceania Rugby are: American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna.

Further Information:

Holly Naughton, +61 431 067 419, holly.naughton@oceaniarugby.com