Another successful year for the IRP

2017 International Rugby Programme

The 2017 International Rugby Programme (IRP) once again lifted the bar in terms of content as well as player commitment and effort on the field, in the weights room and doing video analysis. The players worked extremely hard to address their rugby-related “work-ons” and, in the process, all grew hugely as young people.

This year the IRP again contributed significantly to Burnside High School rugby. Charlie Watanabe was 1st XV player-of-the-year, Sein Taba was given an award for consistent effort as a 1st XV forward, Takaya Saito was 2nd XV MVP, Hille Janssen was girls team MVP and Minori Arai (2nd XV) and Anezka Sladkova (girls) developed into key players in their respective teams. Half-programme players Yui Obata, Haruka Kawabe, Sven Langer and Tadeo Andriani also made shorter, but nevertheless, outstanding contributions to their teams.

Apart from the four players who did a half programme, six boys from Spain took part in the field-based sessions in June and July, adding some spice to the group as they entered the final straight. This year’s players were from Chile, Argentina, Germany, Japan, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Assisted by Vaea Anderson, Aaron Jones was a wonderful skills coach. Olly Wilson did an admirable job instructing in the weights room with Warwick Taylor, Jan Galloway, Matt Crosby and Nao Matsui providing high quality instruction in the classroom and various other outdoor sessions. Taylor Aldridge and Dr. Sohei Takamori contributed on the video analysis front with assistance from coaching intern Shuta Komai.

Awards were as follows:

Male MVP: Charlie Watanabe

Female MVP: Anezka Sladkova

2nd XV MVP: Takaya Saito

2nd XV tacklers award: Minori Arai

Most Improved: Keigo Uehara

2nd XV Captain’s award: Taichi Matsuda

English Award: Taichi Matsuda