Metropolitan New York
Rugby Football Union Est. 1967
"Come Play the Game"

Mark,

Thanks for your time!

1. Last Fall you held the first Forwards Clinic in the Metropolitan Area in a few
years, what led you to start this?

As you know, I do a lot of work in New York to develop rugby although this opportunity was essentially a reverse inquiry from the UK. Brian, Jeff and Paul have been running these clinics for many years and offered to run one in New York as they were going to be
over for their Front Row Union Club dinner. Obviously this was a great opportunity to get some local players to learn from some top international players.


2. Is this type of clinic something that you would like to see made
mandatory for Front Rowers as to avoid injuries and in general increase
knowledge?

No, nothing like this should be mandatory in my view. Appropriate
coaching however should be at the club level, from a safety perspective. The
clinic was designed for players to learn and improve and in my experience,
players that want to improve make the effort to attend.


3. Do you have other clinics planned either for backs or forwards again?

Obviously I have a number of youth clinics going on in various schools but
nothing for senior players planned at this time. We will certainly make this
an annual fixture and next summer may have some pro's in town as part of
some summer camp activity.


4. You had mentioned that you are going to Colorado before the roll out of
the new coaching clinic to become an instructor. I'm also assuming that
you'll be teaching at Stony Brook. Do you foresee an increase in interest
for coaching in the Union, especially if the clinics can be taught locally?
Would you be the one having to push for more clinics from up above or could
we just set that up in the Union ourselves?

Yes, I have been invited to become a USA Rugby Course Leader and will
undergo the appropriate instruction in December. I have not been invited to
teach at Stony Brook as I am unavailable due to playing commitments.
However, I certainly foresee this as a great opportunity to grow the coaching
base in New York. My organization, 'Play Rugby' intends to host some
coaching clinics on behalf of USA Rugby and as they will likely be based in
the city, they should be easy for most people locally to get to. We will
also be running some non-contact instructional clinics throughout the year
for parents and phys-ed teachers, to help them in starting their own
programs. Clearly all around this will be a good thing for the Union- more
coaches leads to more players, which leads to increased competition and
improved standards across the board.


5. Do you foresee working with the Referee Union to have larger workshops
and have everyone together? For instance, when I got my Level 1
certification out in PA, there were all three levels there and we would
split into our own groups. After the days work we'd all get beers and get to
know one another, it was a huge networking experience.

That is certainly possible although has not been explored yet. As far as I
know, the coaching workshops are currently separate from the referees
workshops.

6. What do you expect from this Union?

A strong union requires strong leadership to encourage participation and
cooperation between all people involved in the game. I think there are a lot
of people who work hard for the Met currently and it's a hard job when you
have a 'day' job! I had a productive meeting with Ed Hughes recently and
we're partnering up on a couple of initiatives to grow the coaching base for
youth locally.

Of course, there is room for improvement in terms of what the Met does.
Generally, Teams should be encouraged to work together to share best
practices, to enable every club to improve (both on the field and off) as I
say, there's always room for improvement. As a Union we should aspire to be
better, more competitive and financially sound. We can be all these things
as we have the teams and the participants, but we need the right people from
the clubs to step up pull that all together. Ultimately it comes down to
team first, self last. Translated that would be Union first, team next and
that's a tough message to get across and for that to happen, people need to
care about the Met. It needs to mean something to them and offer them
something over and above just playing for a team (any of us can do that).
Creating this direction, leadership and positive participation, takes time.
So the big question to be actioned is how can we make the Met more
meaningful to its participants?

7. You also mentioned that you had started up a non-profit, Play Rugby.
Please tell me a little more about this program and why you think it's
important that we introduce rugby at the Youth level. In the few years that
you have been doing this, can you see any progress in the Children you've
been helping? Any success stories you'd like to share?

The number one thing with Play Rugby is that we really make a
difference to the kids that participate. We will coach any kids at any
school, grades 4-9 and all of them benefit. The kids that benefit the most
perhaps are those who are less fortunate in their upbringing and have a new
outlet to learn and develop as a person, through playing rugby. The fact
that our programs are growing through demand from the kids speaks for
itself. We'll have some specific accolades and testimonials later in the
year as certain programs break for the holidays. In the meantime we manage
our growth, next year we drive our growth by developing coaches, increasing
programs and providing a framework for competition for participants. In 5
years I would estimate we'll have over 4000 kids playing the game. We'll
need some funding to make that happen, but the demand will be there and it's
going to be an exciting challenge to pass on the benefits of the game to
that many kids over the next few years.

Please Visit: www.playrugbynyc.com