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Grassroots Rugby development in Ghana alive and kicking despite challenges

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One of the main priorities of the Ghana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) is the development of youth or grassroots Rugby development and according to the President, Mr. Herbert Mensah, it is alive and kicking despite many challenges.

According to Mr. Mensah World Rugby (previously know as the International Rugby Board or IRB) in recent years launched a structured programme called “Get Into Rugby” to support grassroots development and to also measure the growth of youth involvement in Rugby.

“Grassroots rugby development has been in existence as long as Rugby has been in existence,” he continued to say.

According to Mr. Mensah grassroots Rugby development across the world varies from very structured development programmes that is part and parcel of the school system to, what he terms, “gutter-to-gutter” development.

“Street sports is not a new concept and in many developing nations you will find young kids playing football or soccer, cricket and indeed Rugby in the poorest of poor areas in the streets,” Mr. Mensah said.

Youth Rugby development in Ghana is especially vibrant in CentWest (Central and Western Regions) where the current Technical Director of the GRFU, Mr. George Ladipo, has made it his mission to build a Rugby culture from the ground level.

“When I got involved in Rugby in Ghana I soon realised that the future of Ghana Rugby is indeed dependent on the extent that we will succeed to make it an optional extracurricular sport for our school children,” he said.

Mr. Ladipo and his team has managed to involve the youth through tournaments such as Fetu Afahye Festival, an annual festival celebrated by the people and chiefs of Cape Coast Traditional Area in the Central Region of Ghana, Beach Rugby programmes and school tournaments.

“We established The Central and Western Rugby Academy Development, a registered NGO under the Department of Social Welfare and Ghana Rugby. The organization was setup to train, promote and expose youth in Ghana to Rugby as a sport,” Mr. Ladipo said.

According to him it has a membership of about 800 from 34 community and school clubs in the Central and Western region of Ghana such as the University of Cape Coast, Mfantsipim SHS/JHS, Adisadel College, Aggrey Memorial, Oguaa SHS, St. Augustine’s College, Wesley Girls SHS, Holy Child SHS, Jubilee Catholic, Montessori JHS, Abura Bombers, Oguaaman Ocean Warriors, Twifo Praso-Hemang Lower Denkyira, Takoradi Polytechnic, Takoradi Technical Institute and many more.

In December 2014 a youth development programme was embarked on in Greater Accra that spanned over three days and involved more than 200 students.

The project created great excitement and enthusiasm and also created a major challenge on how to sustain the programme with the current resource constraints.

“Proper youth Rugby development requires many resources such as trained coaches, equipment, facilities and indeed money,” Mr. Salim who headed the project said.

According to Mr. Mensah the “Get Into Rugby” programme is a very professionally structured programme with huge potential to grow the Rugby Family worldwide and indeed in Ghana, but that also has its limitations for resource strapped developing countries such as Ghana.

“Ghana Rugby is in a process to build Rugby in Ghana almost from scratch and the opportunities are huge, but unfortunately the challenges are even greater. We will have to look at a pragmatic approach where both ‘Get Into Rugby’ and ‘Gutter-to-Gutter Rugby’ support each other for the betterment of the sport.

According to Mr. Mensah the GRFU is in discussion with both World Rugby and African Rugby on how to re-introduce “Get Into Rugby” into Ghana while simultaneously generating awareness in Rugby in ways that has served Rugby for generations.

“Our Clubs are supposed to play a very critical role in youth Rugby development as they will eventually be the beneficiaries. The day that we can vitalize this dormant factor will be the day that Rugby will explode in Ghana.” Mr. Mensah concluded.

GBC

Kwabena Yeboah tags Herbert Mensah as Kotoko’s greatest leader ever

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Herbert MensahVeteran sports journalist, Kwabena Yeboah has tagged former Asante Kotoko Board Chairman Herbert Mensah as the greatest leader he has ever met at the Porcupine Warriors.

After his appointment as Board Chairman of Kotoko by the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II in 1999, Herbert Mensah devised a 5-year strategic plan that was aimed at rebuilding the club to ensure excellence both on and off the pitch.

During Mr. Mensah’s tenure, Kotoko was able to generate a 234 million old cedi Mobitel Ghana sponsorship deal to settle unpaid player salaries and hand each of the 18 players a Star Call cellular phone and starter pack before introducing Kotoko Express, the club’s official mouth-piece, onto the news-stands.

The era of the Mr. Mensah also saw Asante Kotoko being handled by top coaches like Ernest Middendorp, who contributed to the club’s rise to become the second best team on the African continent behind Al Ahly of Egypt.

“There have been several great leaders of Asante Kotoko the likes of Ernest Yaw Ofori Barwuah, Paa Nuako but Herbert Mensah is the greatest I have met in Asante Kotoko,” Mr. Yeboah told Starr FM.

Asides his plans to commercialize Kotoko’s games, training sessions and programs through radio and television stations, Herbert Mensah was ready to oversee the construction of a 75,000 seater sports complex for the club on a 50-acre land given out by the team’s life patron, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

But, the plans of the Economist at the latter stages of his era could not materialize after his tenure came to an end in 2003. And, Kwabena Yeboah is disappointed that Herbert Mensah was never given another opportunity to run and improve the club.

“My biggest regret is that he was not allowed to actualize his vision for Asante Kotoko,” Mr. Yeboah added.

Herbert Mensah was replaced by Major Rtd. Yaw Larsen at Asante Kotoko.

Daily Soccer Ghana

President of Ghana Rugby meets with IRB

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The President of the Ghana Rugby Football Union, Mr. Herbert Mensah has met with officials of the International Rugby Board (IRB) in Dublin to discuss issues relating to the development of the game in Ghana.

Present at the meeting held at Huguenot House in Dublin were Mr. David Carrigy, Head of Development and International Relations; Mr. Morgan Buckley, General Manager Development; and Mr. Colum Lavery, Member Services Manager.

According to Mr. Herbert Mensah the primary objective of the meeting was to introduce himself on a personal level to the people in charge of rugby development internationally and to seek guidance on the priorities for the development of rugby in Ghana.

Mr. Carrigy congratulated Mr. Mensah and his Executive Members on their election as the people to grow the “Rugby Family” in Ghana and assured him that the IRB was fully behind the development programme and would assist and support Ghana Rugby to achieve its objectives.

Mr. Morgan Buckley explained the development priorities of the IRB and congratulated Ghana Rugby with its participation in its core development programme “Get Into Rugby”. The training and orientation for implementation of this programme was done in Accra early on this year.

The IRB Get Into Rugby programme is part of the IRB strategy to grow the game globally in partnership with member regions and unions. The programme is a central part of the IRB initiative to grow Rugby as it rejoins the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

It seeks to encourage players of all ages to Try, Play and Stay in Rugby. Get Into Rugby will promote the values of the Game and ensure children are encouraged to try Rugby in a safe and progressive environment.

Mr. Buckley further encouraged Ghana Rugby to evolve from Associate Membership to Full Membership of the IRB as soon as possible in order to also get access to further IRB Development Grant funding in addition to current support provided by the IRB.

The Ghana Rugby Association (GRA) operating as the Ghana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) was established in 2003 and forms part of the IRB’s African development region CAR (Confédération Africaine de Rugby).  In order to progress from Associate Member status to Full Member status Ghana Rugby needs to comply with certain IRB criteria.

Mr. Mensah emphasised that the Board of Ghana Rugby is in the process of assessing the state of rugby in Ghana in order to come up with a revised strategic development blueprint that will also ensure speedy compliance with the requirements of becoming  a Full Member of the IRB.

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