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Rugby Africa’s workshop – Each year, Rugby Africa’s team makes an appointment in a different country for a very important meeting ! A business travel which gives the opportunity to 10 colleagues, but also 10 friends, to meet and discuss about the African rugby. In Rugby Africa, we believe in work but even more in good atmosphere, in friendship and in the values of rugby. Thanks to this,  meetings are always a nice moment and fruitful sharing !

In this month of December, the team mets  in Casablanca (Morocco) for four workdays. Erick Situma, Charles Yapo, Mostafa Jelti and Berthin Rafalimanana, Regional Development Officers were present ; in the company of Adama Bakhoum and Denver Wannies, Regional Training Manager, then Coralie van den Berg, Operations Manager, David Baird-Smith, our Junior consultant and of Lola Barthés, in charge of the Communication and the Medias. All this under Jean-Luc Barthès’ management, the Rugby Services Manager for African rugby at World Rugby attentive eye.

Three names seem certainly new to you. Adama Bakhoum and Denver Wannies : we had already spoken to you about them many times, Adama and Denver were until now major members of World Rugby, both in charge of the Training in Africa. Today, their contracts are modified for our greatest happiness ! Indeed, they will, from now on, be Rugby Africa’s employees, Adama as full time, Denver as part-time. Then, there is Mostafa Jelti : our quite new Regional Development Officers for the Northern Region of the continent. Welcome to them !

Many areas were covered for the own operation of rugby in Africa. First of all, how to improve our work together to be even more successful. You may not suspect it, but all the team phones at least once a month for a clarification and sends one ton of emails per day. The work of some can help the others, it is always very useful to us to know what our colleagues are doing.
We then discussed about various Rugby Africa programmes, Impact Beyond, Get Into Rugby, Women’s rugby. Projects which means a lot for us and which obtains a big success on the continent. Thousands of new enthusiasts players try rugby every year make of Africa the best second region of the world, just after Europe (according to World Rugby’s ranking).

Each of the 10 participants also presented the work they made over the year 2015, what worked well and what it will be necessary to improve. We thus spoke about Marketing, about Communication and the Competitions for the year 2016. We always do our best with a restricted budget, what is not still clear. It is necessary to try to satisfy all the countries of this big continent, the ultimate purpose not only being to improve the performance of the National teams but to develop rugby in capitals, in countrysides, in remote cities.

Four workdays, which allow us to restart the head full of great ideas and great projects that we look forward to presenting you. In 2016, we promise, we shall hold all our resolutions !