Oceania Rugby assists unions "to do things better" – Matangi Tonga

Representatives of Oceania Rugby gathered in Nukualofa last week, 30-31 May for the 2017 Annual General Meeting and a Leading RugbyWorkshop.

Bruce Cook, Rugby Services Manager for Oceania and World Rugby, said that the two days Leading Rugby Workshop will lead participants to look at how to assist unions to do things better that is why we use the term LeadingRugby.

First on the agenda was an Olympic solidarity session. Solidarity has a lot of funds that can be access by a lot of unions around the world. So we are trying to make sure Oceania Unions are right up to speed on what they can apply for. The executive staff of Oceania Rugby will support them in their application, hesaid.

The fact that a national team from Oceania, Fiji, won the first Olympic Gold Medal in rugby in the Olympic is a boost for the development of rugby inOceania.

A workshop on the development of womens rugby, and a session on funding from Australia and New Zealand for the Pacific was held on the final day of themeeting.

The first gold medal for the Womens Sevena-side in the Olympic was won by a team from Oceania, Australia, proof of the high standard of rugby inOceania.

Other things the workship looked at was players welfare. Players welfare is key for the game . . . it is not just on concussion, it is also psychological welfare. We are all here for the players. If it was not for the players, administrators like us would not be here. We need to make sure that the players are well lookedafter."

Bruce said that the election of executive members of Oceania Rugby is held every four years, but at this years AGM they would elect only a newtreasurer.

The Oceania Rugby Executive members are elected by the representatives of Oceania Rugbys 15 MemberUnions.

He said the session on constitutions was also on the programme. We have done some work in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and we are currently working on Samoa andFiji.

Bruce stressed that it is vital for Oceania Rugby during the next few years to get their constitutions up tospeed.

The Current Executive Membersare:

Brent Andersonf(NZL),Secretary

Ansrew Larratt (AUS),Treasurer

Reremoana MOekaa (COK), ExecutiveMember

Cathy Wong, Non-elected WomensDirector

Aloma Johansson, Non-elected IndependentDirector.

Oceania Rugby has 15 members. The 14 Full Members and one Associate Member of Oceania Rugby are: American Samoa Rugby Union, Australian Rugby Union, Cook Islands Rugby Union, Fiji Rugby Union, New Caledonia Rugby Union, New Zealand Rugby, Niue Rugby Union, Papua New Guinea Rugby Union, Samoa Rugby Union, Solomon Islands Rugby Union, Tahiti Rugby Football Union, Tonga Rugby Union, Tuvalu Rugby Union, Vanuatu Rugby Football Union and Wallis and Futuna RugbyUnion.

Bruce said that the group was known as the Federation of the Oceania Rugby Union, but since the International Rugby Board changed its name to World Rugby two years ago, they also decided to change their name to OceaniaRugby.

We want to go from the regulation side of the game to inspiration, and that is one of the reasons for the name change to WorldRugby.

Bruce manages World rugby Service for Oceania, the Oceania Rugby, with links to the Oceania RugbyBoard.

Oceania Rugby, based in Sydney, Australia is staffed through a partnership between World Rugby and Oceania Rugby which ensures a coordinated delivery of Rugby programs to the Member Unions of the region. The work of the staff is guided by the Oceania Rugby Strategy which was approved by the Oceania Rugby Member Unions at its 2015 Annual GeneralMeeting.

The staff of Oceania Rugbyare:

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Oceania Rugby assists unions "to do things better" - Matangi Tonga