PENGUIN INTERNATIONAL RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB Rugby Football Union Kent County RFU WINTER NEWSLETTER2018 PENGUINS PIPPED AT THE POST IN THE GFI HKFC10s CUP FINAL Also in this issue: + HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy visit Hyderabad and Kurnool in India + Michael Schwartz’s never before seen photographs of the 1987 & 1988 HK7s + Penguins involved in the 2017 New Zealand Lions Tour + John Kerr (right) becomes the first King Penguin President Welcome to the PIRFC Newsletter for Winter 2018 The HSBC Penguin International Coaching Academy visited HSBC sponsor the HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy. India between 24th August - 3rd September 2017 in support of Going forward, in an agreement that includes World Rugby, HSBC Penguin coaches will be travelling the world to help our good friends the India Rugby Union. Read all about this develop our game through grass roots, development and most rewarding and successful trip on pages 3 - 4. coach education activities. On the playing front, the Penguin International RFC will HSBC is a long-term investor in rugby around the world. be playing in the GFI HKFC10s in Hong Kong, between the Through key partnerships such as the HSBC Sevens World Series, the bank is helping to develop and grow rugby at all 2nd and the 9th April 2018 (and that’s not all the Hong Kong- levels of the game. related info - on pages 15 - 18 you’ll find some never-before- At the heart of all of their partnerships is HSBC's seen photographs by Michael Schwartz of the Penguins at the commitment to helping develop the grassroots level of 1988 and 1989 Hong Kong 7s Tournaments). There’s also a full the game and the HSBC Penguins are a key part of this support.The Penguins are aligned with the bank’s focus on report on the 2017 GFI HKFC10s in which defending champions encouraging youngsters around the world to play rugby, Penguins were pipped at the post in a very close-run Cup Final. often for the first time, and create a legacy through Coach See pages 5 - 9. Education and the delivery of essential kit and equipment. The King Penguins played in the Malta Vets Tournament last May and won the title - beating Malta Marauders in the final. Details on page 10. And on page 19 there’s a short article regarding Penguins’ stalwart John Kerr’s appointment as King Grove Industries founded in 1983, operates apparel Penguins’ President. Many congratulations, John! sourcing and manufacturing operations on an A Penguin XV was also sucessful at the end of January, international scale. Its products are manufactured beating Cambridge University RUFC in our annual encounter. in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Other locations include Philippines, Indonesia, Mauritius, India Read about it on pages 11 - 12. and Sri Lanka. You’ll find quite a few other bits and pieces inside to www.groveind.com entertain you, too. We hope you enjoy catching up with your Club’s doings! Coming coaching activities, fixtures & tours A concept since 1998 and born in 2003,Tsunami Sport was established with the objective of providing ! HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy tour to Uraguay 9-19th a range of international quality sports apparel March. to athletes at club level in a variety of sports. ! GFI/HKFC Hong Kong 10s at Hong Kong FC 2-9th April. www.tsunami-sports.com More details on page 20. As usual, if you’d like to join the Academy and the Penguins at any of these events, please contact Craig Brown at: [email protected] Specialising in spine care, Synapse Physiotherapy is the only private clinic in Malaysia to provide the integrated Spinal Core Stability (SCORES) If you’re a golfer, don’t miss this year’s Club gathering at the programme. Synapse Physiotherapy continually St. James, Caledonian and Penguin International Golfing Society defines modern day rehabilitation with the latest fixture on Friday, 29th June 2018, at the Berkshire GC. Contact evidence-based physiotherapy practices available. Tony Carpenter for full details: [email protected] www.synapse.com.my Don’t forget to keep an eye on the Club website for up- We are sure all members will join with us in to-date news as and when it happens: www.penguinrugby.com expressing our thanks to HSBC, Grove Industries, Tsunami and Synapse for their ongoing support, interest and sponsorship of the Penguins. 2 PENGUIN INTERNATIONAL COACHING NEWS HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy Trip to India 24 August to 3rd September 2017 In August /September 2017 the HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy travelled to Hyderabad and Kurnool in India, to sup- port the India Rugby Union in introducing the game to all areas of the country (writes Lead Coach Dave Cockburn). The initiative is called “Get Into Rugby” and focused on introducing the concept of what rugby is and the basic princi- ples of the game.The main themes being delivered were: • What is a try • How to score a try with the ball • How to pass the ball • How to catch the ball • How to pick and go • How to support the player with the ball How the HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy delivered these principles was going to be a challenge as we knew that the average number of children involved, per session, would be at least 500+. The coaching team of Ian Fowler (Australia), Dave Cockburn (Scotland), Alun Harries (Wales) and James Farndon (England) started to assemble on 24th of August. Ian was in first with Dave and Alun next and James arriving on the 26th. As well as the HSBC Penguin Coaching Academy coaches we had Rajeev Nath (Rugby Development Manager: Rugby India) and Ven Katesan (Rugby Development Officer) join us.Ven quickly became “Vinky”. Both Rajeev and Vinky were invaluable to the success of this trip. There was no hanging about. Upon arrival,Vinky, Rajeev and myself met for breakfast and discussed where we were going later on that morning, and how we would deliver the session.The plan of action was still not clear on how we were going to deliver our session because we did not know what kind of space we were working in, what the actu- al numbers were, what the gender of the children would be and the general age range. I am not going to describe what happened at every school but the following is a general synopsis of our trav- el to venues and the greeting we received at the venues. Breakfast over, we were on our way to the Sankale International School. A nice surprise was finding out we had 16 volunteer coaches already at the school to set up cones and lay out the balls.These volunteers were with us for our full stay in Hyderabad. The journey was an eye-opener and sometimes an eye-shutter due to the erratic driving. We did not realize that the sounding of a horn could have so many meanings. Not only this, there were random cows, pigs and, let’s not to forget, human beings trying to get across the road. When we reached Sankale International School we were greeted by 525 children sitting in and orderly fashion waiting in anticipation for us to arrive.There was a table set with flowers, to be presented to us, and seats for us to wait for the introductions from the school Principal. We were served with tea or Chi, which was deadly sweet and strong.What impressed us ...we were greeted by 525 children was the order and discipline of the students.When we had a chance to sitting in an orderly fashion... speak to them and ask questions they were very responsive and never stopped smiling.The area in which we had to work was very limited (not the case in a lot of the other schools). Rajeev controlled the session, which we put together, and this was the formula from which we worked from for the rest of the tour.The volunteers controlled the groups of students, Rajeev explained what had to happen, we as coaches demonstrated the particular skill required then we, along with Vinky, facilitated the practices by going round 3 the groups helping, encouraging, demonstrating and smiling. Once the practices started we knew the students were having fun and were engaged with what they were doing.There was noise, laughter, competition and a lot of skill con- sidering the limited space available to the kids.The volunteers did a great job in keeping some semblance of shape to the groups and Rajeev controlled the stopping and starting of the practices with great skill. Once completed the Principal got the students back into fantastic order and we went through the process of getting our group photo taken.We then discov- Once the practices started we knew ered the “Selfie”!! Random adults who had nothing to do with the the students were having fun... practice would come up to and ask for a “Selfie”.The kids main ques- tions were: “What is your name?”,“Where do you come from?” and “Can I shake your hand?” Oh and should we for- get “Can I have a Selfie?” If given half a chance they would swamp us just trying to shake our hands. This was the pattern that we followed for the whole tour with varying numbers of students and pitch sizes. On Tuesday 29/08/17 we packed up and were on the road to Kurnool.This was a 300K-road trip and gave us a good opportunity to take in India. On arrival we were shocked to be taken directly into a full blown press conference with fifty journalists and three camera crews reporting.