The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is delighted to have been associated with the design and implementation of the IRB Rugby Ready programme and in bringing it to the attention of all the stakeholders in Irish rugby.

Rugby Ready is a new initiative from the IRB which aims to provide Coaches, Referees and Players with best practice guidelines on Physical Conditioning, Technical Performance and Injury Prevention.

Get online now at http://www.irbrugbyready.com/ to complete the self-check test and receive your Rugby Ready certificate.

IRB Rugby Ready covers such areas as:

Pre-participation
Equipment
Warm-up
Cool Down
Physical Conditioning
Lifelstyle

The programme also looks at the technical aspects of the game including:

The tackle
Taking the ball into contact
The scrum
The lineout
The website for Rugby Ready allows you to create your own account, view coaching advice and referee's tips as well as videos explaining the content and complete your own progress chart.

For information and assistance, please contact your Provincial IRFU Branch office.

The IRB Rugby Ready programme follows in the footsteps of the highly successful Rugby Smart and Smart Rugby initiatives from New Zealand and Australia. This programme is not intended to replace these initiatives but to provide a global resource for stakeholders around the world. Implementation strategies and policies are for individual Unions to determine.

A number of IRFU staff were involved in the design of the programme including Steve Aboud (National Coaching Director), the staff and players of the Leinster Rugby Academy, Dr. Conor McCarthy (IRFU Medical Officer) and David Keane and Alan Rogan (IRFU Referees).

For further information on the programme click on the following links:

http://www.irishrugby.ie/7677_11687.php

http://www.irbrugbyready.com