Pupils from De la Salle College in West Belfast recently took part in a six week tag rugby coaching course delivered by IRFU Ulster Branch
Ulster Branch Senior Community Rugby Officer, Brian O'Shaughnessy recently held a six- week tag rugby coaching programme for first to third year pupils from De La Salle College in West Belfast. Twenty boys took part in the programme which was delovered every Wednesday afternoon during the six week period.
Most of the young people taking part had never played rugby before, having come from a GAA or Soccer background, but they were all very keen to get stuck in to a new sport.
The tag sessions, which were delivered to four teams of five players, all took place in the school's brand new state of the art sports hall. At the end of the six weeks, the pupils took part in a round-robin tag tournament and they will receive a certificate at the annual school awards day later this month.
Paul Buchanan, a teacher at De la Salle said: "I'm delighted that the boys got to experience rugby. This is the first time that most of these pupils have played the sport and they soon realised that many of the skills they have learned through GAA and soccer are indeed transferrable. I'd like to thank the IRFU Ulster Branch, and Brian in particular, for coming to the school and I hope now that the boys will continue to build on the their Tag Rugby training."
Brian O'Shaughnessy added: "I really enjoyed my six weeks of coaching at de la Salle. The pupils were all very enthusiastic and eager to learn a new sport and they quickly realised the transferability of many of the skills between Gaelic football and soccer and Rugby. Rugby is growing in popularity all the time and more and more people are getting involved who have never previously played. I hope that we will see some of the boys at de la Salle continuing to play rugby and perhaps eventually coming through to their local clubs."
