Rugby became the latest core sport to launch its academy yesterday and Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle is confident of the programme’s success once a concerted and combined effort is undertaken by all stakeholders.
The programme which was launched in National Park with a huge turnout of young and eager ruggers, is the seventh of the 12 core sports to kick off its nursery.
Rugby is one of the core disciplines which is being targeted by the Ministry of Sport for structural development at the nursery, tournaments and elite training levels.
The other core sports are Badminton, Cricket, Squash, Table Tennis, Rugby, Volleyball, Swimming, Football, Squash, Lawn Tennis and Track and Field
During the feature address in the brilliant sunshine, Ninvalle stated: “If I can judge by the turnout you have today and by the organizing that I’ve seen especially starting with the national anthem, it tells me that rugby is in good hands and we can expect a lot coming out of this nursery.”
He added “We will go hand in hand with this in order to make this work. It is something that the associations will have to reach the National Sports Commission at half way in order for this to work. It is not the association working in a silo and the NSC working in another silo, we will have to pool our efforts in order to make this a success, failure is not an option.”
The nursery will start on Saturday at the National Park Rugby field from 09:00hrs and will continue every Saturday catering for players as young as six.
According to President of the rugby union, Ryan Dey, “This is a great initiative by the Minister, Charles Ramson Jr., and this is what rugby needs in order to grow and this is what we need for continuity.”
Dey pointed out that the discipline has enjoyed a wealth of international success and hopes that the initiative can extend to other regions in order to spot and maximize the nation’s talent.
Last October, Ramson Jr., had stated that the Sports Academy was a specific manifesto promise and reflects President Irfaan Ali’s “bottom-up” approach to national development.
The remaining core sports will continue to roll out in the next few weeks as they complete their preparatory arrangements and training.
