Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

The BCHB-COBRA Schools Rugby Development Programme will be organizing the following activities for month of March and April, 2006.

a. Rugby Weekend with COBRA

Date : Friday, 31st March to Sun, 2nd April

Venue : COBRA Clubhouse

Schools : King Edward VII, Taiping, Perak SMK Dato Dol Said, Alor Gajah, Melaka

Details : Each schoolwill send 2 teachers and 20 Under - 15 boys

Schedule :
Friday,
31st March, 2006

1630 hr
Registration and tea
1700 hr
Field activities [ skill drills ]
1900 hr
Dinner
2000 hr
Video [ View Recorded Rugby Match ]

Saturday,
1st April, 2006

0700 hr
Stretching at Field
0800 hr
Breakfast
0900 hr
Field Activities [ Skill drills ]
1230 hr
Lunch
1430 hr
Field Activities [ Skill drills ]
1900 hr
Dinner
2000 hr
Video [ View Recorded Rugby Match ]

Sunday,
2nd April, 2006

0700 hr
Stretching at Field
0800 hr
Breakfast
0900 hr
Field Activities [ Skill drills ]
1230 hr
Lunch
1430 hr
Friendly game between the two schools
1630 hr
Tea
1700 hr
Depart back

As the NLCC games will be starting on the same weekend and there are no fixtures for the Selangor league games, we would appreciate if some of the players or members who are free and not involved in the NLCC game would be around to assist the school boys. It would be a good experience and we hope to make things fun and enjoyable for these boys. Let us be a good host to the boys !!!!!!!!!!!!

b. Hulu Selangor Rugby Development Programme

One of the proposals that Charlie Wong had for the Schools Development Programme was to encourage the Technical Chairman of the respective states to pool the resources of all the teacher-coaches who had attended our courses. They should be able to conduct regular clinics at the various districts in turn and then to organize a league among the schools involved so that they can stretch the rugby season a bit longer and allow for schools to play more games than what is normally happening at the moment.

Last December, Charlie approached the Gombak and the Ulu Selangor Disctict Education Departments though some teachers to sound out this proposal. Both were enthusiastic about this. Gombak District with teacher En Hasnul from SPBI Rawang as head, initially wanted to start in January but when they were told that the MSSM tournament was to take place in March, they had hold back the idea.

En Yusri was also able to convince his Ulu Selangor Department head with the proposal. And so on 28 Feb 06, the Selangor group of teachers met up with Tai Fatt and Charlie at the club to discuss the plan. COBRA agreed to run a pilot programme for Ulu Selangor District. The project will last from April to Octotber when the fasting month starts. The plan is as follows:

1. Ulu Selangor District has targeted 10 schools, some with and some without teachers with coaching experience.

2. Each school will nominate a teacher for a crash coaching course in the basics to be held in COBRA on 4th  - 5th April, 06. The Selangor teachers will also nominate 6 teachers with coaching experience (henceforth referred as tutors) to assist Tai Fatt in running this course. All will report on evening of 4th April at the Complex for a night  stay and leave after high-tea the following day.

3. We will conduct a coaching  clinic at Ulu Selangor for 150 students from the 10 schools on Sat 7 April. The 10 school teachers will be conducting the clinics with the supervision of Tai Fatt and the tutors.

4. After this the respective teachers will handle their own schools for then on. The 6 tutor will make the rounds and assist these 10 teachers throughout the period.

5. There will be two or three more central clinics. Dates to be determined.

6. At the end of the first and third month there will be a 10-a-side carnival involving all the schools.

7. By August, we expect all the schools to build up a team each. The round robin league will commence.

This programme will be run under the auspices of the Ulu Selangor Education Department with COBRA's support.

COBRA hope to use this project as a model for the other states to follow. The teachers will be doing most of the work as intended. We will visit them regularly and provided whatever advice and assistance they need.

c. Rugby Weekend with COBRA in April, 2006

The Education department will nominate 2 schools to participate in this programme. Details will beprovided later.

d. 2nd Coaching Course in Cherating, Kuantan

In 2005 COBRA commenced a three-year School Rugby Development Programme 2005 � 2007 in conjunction with the Ministry of Education. COBRA completed the first year�s activities most successfully with the good cooperation of all parties. In brief, we conducted four Level 1 Courses in which we trained 123 teachers. We reached about 2000 students through our coaching clinics and week-end rugby camps. We organized a Schools Qualifying Tournament for the schools state champions in Peninsula Malaysia and culminated with the COBRA Schools Rugby Invitational 10s where 6 local school teams pit their skills against the Broadwater Secondary School, UK and St Andrews Secondary Schools, Singapore with impressive results.

For year 2006, BCHB-COBRA Schools Rugby Development programme started the first Coaching Course in Alor Setar, Kedah. The programme was conducted on 13th - 17th February, 2006 and attended by 58 participants, among them our very own : Mat Romli.

The 2nd Coaching course will be held in Cherating, Kuantan from 23rd to 28th April, 2006. We would like to invite interested members / playing members to participate in this course. This course will be conducted by the HSBC Penguin Rugby Coaching Academy from UK and also together with our local qualified Development Staff and Coaches.

We hope that our members and playing members will take note of the progress in this BCHB-COBRA Schools Rugby Development Programme and participate in which ever way they can. We need your supports and I shall brief you guys regularly on our progress.

Till Then.

Cheers

TJ
Schools Programme Secretary