Scottish Rugby host largest National Coaching Conference

Scottish Rugby Coach Development hosted their annual National Coaching Conference at BT Murrayfield on Sunday with over 200 coaches from across the domestic game learning from some of Scotland’s top professional coaches. Practical workshops were delivered to school, youth and adult coaches which focused on various themes, such as attack, defence, breakdown and set piece. The conference also saw the launch of the new Scottish Rugby Training Hub in partnership with Captured HQ.The training hub will provide coaches and match officials with an interactive online platform to view and engage with coach development, strength and conditioning and match official resources.Neil Graham, Scottish Rugby’s Coach Development Manager, said: “It was great to have such a large turnout from coaches across Scotland, with representatives from over 130 clubs and schools, proving the demand for these type of coaching development events.The coaches had the opportunity to observe some excellent sessions, all of which will be available on our new online training hub.”The day combined presentations with practical coaching workshops from coaches in the professional ranks of the sport.Scotland Team Attack Coach, Jason O’Halloran, focused on the specifics of attacking play with Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Gregor Townsend exploring counter attack.Peter Wilkins, Edinburgh Rugby’s Defence Coach, provided an insight into defence and Dan McFarland, Glasgow Warriors Forwards Coach, was on hand to explore the technicalities of the breakdown area.Scotland’s record points scorer and Scottish Rugby Ambassador, Chris Paterson, and his former national teammate and Scotland Team Skills Coach, Nathan Hines, focused on kicking from hand and lineout defence respectively. Jonathan Humphreys, Scotland Team Forwards Coach, provided coaches with a specialised session on the scrum, with Bryan Easson from the BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy (Edinburgh) delivering practical information on scrum half play.Scottish Rugby’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Development Officer, and Scotland Women’s Assistant Coach, Peter Jericevich, explored evasion skills and Glasgow Warriors full-back, Peter Murchie, concentrated on aerial skills.Sean Lineen, Scottish Rugby’s Head of International Age Grade and Carl Hogg, Worcester Warriors Head Coach, also delivered presentations on Scotland international age-grade technical themes and developing a coaching culture respectively.The Scottish Rugby Training Hub is available to coaches and match officials operating in Scotland. For more information, please visit http://scottishrugby.org/training-hub.