LEIGH’S FEET ON COACH LADDER
LEIGH Halfpenny is being developed by the Welsh Rugby Union to be part of the next generation of coaches in Wales.
At a time when there’s been criticism about the absence of any homegrown head coaches at the regions, Halfpenny and Justin Tipuric are being prepared for careers beyond playing.
Fellow Wales and Lions man James Hook is also on the same path.
All three are already on the governing body’s Player-to-Coach Programme which grooms players who are eventually looking to move into coaching.
Tipuric has been helping out at various levels at his local club Trebanos RFC for a number of years. The union feel their programme is assisting him even more.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Scarlets full-back Halfpenny had been lined up to oversee a specialist kicking coaching clinic with Wales Under-18s – the rugby equivalent of being tutored at golf by Tiger Woods in his pomp.
And Hook, who is finishing as a player with the Ospreys at the end of the current season, had been earmarked for some on-the-job coaching experience pre-Covid 19.
In his case, he had been assigned to head up Wales Under-19s against Japan High Schools, with Geraint Lewis and Chris Horsman supporting him and acting as mentors. But the fixture had to be wiped from the spring calendar.
The union are also running an Elite Coach Programme, catering for those already working at the senior end of the game or have the potential to do so in the near future.
The aim is to enlarge the pool of coaches in Wales.
Driving the changes is the union’s performance coach manager Dan Clements, with his goal being to alter the landscape of elite coaching in Wales.
He said: “We really want to change the narrative about what coaching is and how we support coaches.
“For too long we have been focused purely on assessment and we need to shift this towards a culture of learning and collaboration and providing the best environments possible.
”The programmes we have developed will help with this, but more importantly, my role is about coaching the coaches and helping them in that regard.
“Quality coaching sits at the heart of a player’s development and ultimately performance, and we can’t underestimate the influence that a coach has on this process, so it’s up to us to support this with our current and future elite coaches.”
There is no Welsh person currently occupying a head coaching role at any of the regions.
“It doesn’t frustrate Clements.
“We want the best coaches operating in Wales.
“When you go to an open market, that’s what you look for in any walk of life.
“We’ve got some me,” really added good coaches in the current system who are not too far off the kind of positions we’re talking about.
“Most of the time it comes down to opportunity.”
Professional players – the likes of Halfpenny, Tipuric and Hook – are not now taught the basics of the game, they are instead learning the finer points of coaching.
“They’ve played the game to an extraordinary high level and their knowledge of the sport is huge,” said Clements. “They know all the intricate details.
“We then have to help them learn how to teach it.
“In the past, in the old system, they will have gone through a framework where we’d sit them down and try to teach them about the game again. There’s no gains in that. There’s no motivation for them to engage in that.
“We spend the majority of our time with those guys teaching them about good coaching principles.”
“Professional players need a different learning experience and the interest is really growing.”
FORMER Wales international Chris Czekaj has announced his retirement from professional rugby.
The 34-year-old confirmed the news on his Twitter page.
Having played an integral role in the Grand Slam-winning Wales under-21 side, Czekaj shot to prominence after scoring on his international debut in 2005, having only broken into the Cardiff Blues first team just a month previously.
Czekaj was tipped for a big future, and even attracted praise from All Blacks great Jonah Lomu.
But, at the age of 21, his career suffered a devastating blow in the summer 2007.
Czekaj suffered a horrific broken leg against Australia, ruling him out of the World Cup, and sidelining him for a full year.
Indeed there were fears he may not ever return to a rugby field.
However, he bounced back and returned to the international scene in 2009, and went on to notch up a total of nine caps for his country.
He left the Welsh capital for the South of France in 2014 with Colomiers, where he suffered another stomach-churning injury, this time on his home debut.
A sickening blow to the head left him unconscious for nearly 20 minutes and, according to his wife Kat, the resulting Grade 3 concussion left him “a different person”.
Czekaj spent three years in France before joining Bedford Blues, eventually making his return to Wales with Premiership side Merthyr RFC last summer.
However, with a Rugby Development role at Bishop of Llandaff High School already on the go, he’s now decided to call time on his playing career, and looks destined to further explore a coaching role.
He wrote: “After 15 years as a player, it’s time to end my professional career.”