Penguin International RFC training ‘Silverbacks’ The men’s national rugby team

 Penguin International RFC has been training the Silverbacks The men’s national rugby team. Silverbacks are being trained to improve their skills by the Penguin International Rugby Football Club.

The RRF chief administrator, John Livingstone Muhire, has explained that the training started on Sunday  by training rugby development officers from different districts. “Rwandan Rugby has been very grateful for the support from Penguins. Several coaching sessions were held before and lots of kits have been donated by the Penguins and some lifelong friendships have been made.” he said. Tony Penny, the trainer from Penguin, has said that he first trained the development officers who teach the children before training the national team for period of one week.

“The objective is to make sure they improve their basic skills through advanced ball, passing, handling and tactics,” he explained. Tony Penny  noted that it is a humbling experience and enthusiastic to train rugby in Rwanda. Penguin’s coaching including CEO Craig Brown and ex Scotland coach Frank Hadden who first visited in 2010, it led to a meeting up in 2011 between the Silverbacks and the King Penguins at Kowloon 10s tournament in Hong Kong.

Since then it has brought a pledge by the King Penguins to visit Rwanda in 2014 with a match played between Silverbacks at the Amahoro stadium. Since then, several coaching sessional have been held and lots of kits donated and some long friendships have been made. The visit coincided with the start of funding from Penguins Charitable Trust to Rwanda Rugby administration. Founded 47 years ago by the late Tony Mason and Alan Wright, their principal objective is to foster the growth, goodwill and camaraderie of Rugby Union football throughout the world, accompanied by a programme of coaching and refereeing seminars.

Elsewhere, the second semi-final of the 2018 MindSky National Rugby league will be played this weekend, when the Kigali Sharks take on Puma Kamonyi on Saturday 22nd at Utexrwa Ground. In the first semi’ played last Saturday, Resilience Rugby Club shocked defending champions Remera Buffaloes to defeat them by 24-15 in a game played in Rusizi stadium.

You can find out more information about Penguin Rugby by visiting their website here.