Tietjens link a boon for Eagles Rugby Academy

PETALING JAYA: The Eagles Rugby Club (ERC) could not have got a better endorsement than from the legendary Sir Gordon Tietjens (pic) when he came on board to help lift the game to greater heights in Malaysia.

The link-up with the Kiwi great was formalised with the launch of the Sir Gordon Tietjens Eagles Rugby Academy at ERS Sports Arena in Bandar Utama, Sandakan, recently.

The main objective for the academy is to mould future 7s stars and aspiring high-performance coaches with improved knowledge of the game.

“ERC believes that it is a wonderful opportunity for us to harness the in-depth knowledge and expertise of this great rugby legend and maximise use of such knowledge for the good of the game here and elsewhere,” said ERC president Velayuthan Tan.

“I did not think twice about lending my name to this academy and to be personally involved because the facilities here are second to none and world standard,” said Tietjens, who is the academy chairman.

“After coaching New Zealand for 22 years, I thought I was going to retire but I want to give something back to the game and this opportunity in this part of the region was the best thing to come to me,” said Tietjens, the former coach of the New Zealand men’s national team and the All Blacks Sevens.

In the 16 years since the IRB Rugby World Series has been run, he has won 12 world titles and four Commonwealth Games gold medals – 1998 Kuala Lumpur, 2002 Manchester, 2006 Melbourne and 2010 Delhi. He was named the New Zealand Rugby Union coach of the year in 2010 recognised for guiding his team to a fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Tietjens said rugby sevens has always been about culture and conditioning – the two real qualities of the sport.

“ERS have the facilities to put conditioning in place and create the rugby culture,” he said.