Page 29 - Unity Project

Additional project achievements

“ Players sharing their expertise, The Unity Project Conference was held in July 2015, a year after the
development plans had begun to be delivered. All 17 countries and 30 CBs
their experiences with other were represented at the conference and it was an opportunity for everyone
As well as the work that took place to deliver
the 15 development plans, the project also held countries and other players and to learn from each other’s experiences and plan for the final year of delivery.
a Women’s Development Camp and a Unity then vice versa, sharing back, During the conference there was a wide range of sessions including ones on
lessons learned so far, planning for year two, social media and promoting the
Project Conference. just helps grow world rugby.” values of rugby.

The Women’s Development Camp was made possible after ALEX AUSTERBERRY, DIVISIONAL Bringing people together is definitely valuable but what they rate most is
being awarded IMPACT Beyond 2014 funding by World TALENT DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, interactive, engaging sessions where they can learn from each other. However,
Rugby to support the legacy of the Women’s Rugby World sessions that are more instructive, for example the session that was run on how
Cup. Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia and RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION to coach coaches, are hard to tailor to such a wide audience. Getting right a
Belgium were selected by World Rugby to take part in conference agenda for this kind of project is a delicate balance but if you do get
the camp and each country sent 10 players, two coaches it right bringing people together in this way can be hugely beneficial.
and a referee to attend one of England Women’s U18
regional development camps. During the camp there were “ In a fun way it is really amazing.”
a number of sessions including skills coaching, match MEGAN MONDELAERS, BELGIAN
analysis and nutrition.
RUGBY FEDERATION PLAYER

By bringing together players, coaches and referees, the
camp created a collaborative learning environment that
was beneficial to everyone involved.
“ The great thing is that we have girls

who start playing rugby and stay in
rugby and these kinds of camps of

course help.” MARIYA SHISHKINA,

RUGBY UNION OF RUSSIAN REFEREE