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Harland urges Union to organise more rugby and have it adequately funded
No stranger to these shores, North American Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Development Officer Scott Harland arrived in Guyana on Sunday to commence a five-day visit aimed at helping to further develop the sport holistically.
Harland joined members of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) executive at a press conference on Sunday at Sleepin Hotel on Brickdam where he outlined the purpose of his visit which includes offering expertise to the union on how to effectively market the sport, enhance its administrative capacity among others, especially in light of the fact that rugby has now been adopted as an Olympic event, starting at the 2016 Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
NACRA Development Officer Scott Harland (3rd right) and GRFU President Peter Green (on his immediate right) seen with other members of the executive at the Press Conference on Sunday.
According to the NACRA Development Officer his designation is to help members of the Association attain their goals, but once they are agreed on and are positive and achievable.
He referred to some of those goals as administrative, coaching and refereeing, adding that even in the absence of personal resources to achieve some of the targets, he seek other ways to bring in whatever is required to ensure that the stated goals and objectives are met.
President of the GFRU, Peter Green, who was also in attendance in his remarks, first welcomed Harland, before giving a brief outline of the Union’s plans for this year.
Among the primary focus this year according to Green is to develop rugby at all levels of school including the primary and secondary, doing infrastructural work on the playing area at the National Park which is most times flooded whenever the rain falls causing major disruption in the Union’s calendar of events as well as preparations for regional and international engagements.
Another project for this year according to the GRFU President that the Union will be working on is to host youth festivals at the under-14, 15 and 19 levels, while a concerted attempt will be made for teams to participate in the international competitions with the first being a Tri-Series involving Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
Meanwhile, Harland offering an opinion on the state of Guyana’s rugby said the organisation of the sport has improved, but noted that it will take more than that for this country and even those in the rest of the Caribbean to reach the level of proficiency required to compete at the highest level.
“If you look at the training regimen of the Canadian/USA players, their women might beat a lot of the men in the Caribbean in fitness because they are treated as professional athletes now and that’s a luxury not every Caribbean country has. It’s a lot of hard work, fitness wise and skill is probably the one thing, the passing and handling skill once the Caribbean nations can get that to an elite level I think they can beat Canada or USA maybe not every time but most of the time,” Harland said.
While noting the difficulty to attract substantial sponsorship to send teams to major competitions, (using Guyana’s non-participation at last year’s NACRA Tournament as an example) Harland advised that the Union apply for funding through the Olympic Solidarity, an avenue he believes could alleviate such a burden.
In closing, he urged the Union to organise more rugby and have it played at every level and to ensure that they are adequately funded.
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