Brisbane Touch Rugby Trip, Brisbane -Emily (2014 cohort)

Emily Crowe (2014 cohort) received an Alumni Grant funded by the Tanglin Foundation for the Brisbane Touch Rugby trip as it provided the opportunity to develop coaching, refereeing and planning experience. Emily coached the 15s girls in preparation for the Queensland All Schools Touch Football Championships, the biggest schools Touch Rugby event anywhere in the world. Over 400 teams and 5000 students converge on Whites Hills, Brisbane in October every year. The games are played over four days, with over 1500 games being played. Emily earned her funding through a PE and Sports Internship at Tanglin Trust School.

The project provided me with the opportunity to develop my coaching experience. Although coaching is already a strength of mine, there are still areas for further development and growth. Through the opportunity to first-hand observe and experience coaching within top tier teams in the Championships, I could further develop my knowledge of the game for my own Touch career as both an England Touch player and as a coach. I was privileged enough to gain coaching insights from Peter Bell, the Australian Women’s Open Touch Rugby Coach which I can use in my own coaching as well as for my development as a player on the England Touch Rugby Squad. Additionally, the England Men’s Open Touch Rugby Coach, Benny Smith was in Brisbane at the same time and generously gave his time to provide our Tanglin girls with coaching at the highest level.

Furthermore, the project has provided me with the opportunity to referee, as I am a qualified Level 1 Touch Rugby Referee. Therefore, as I am currently at Level 1 (and referees are ranked up to Level) there are still areas of growth for my refereeing experience. I was fortunate enough to have a Level 6 World Cup referee from Australia (the world’s foremost nation for Touch Rugby) guide me through a game, providing me with key feedback to develop my refereeing. By going on this project, I took on fresh challenges as well as gained new skills by refereeing at a high-level event that is internationally recognised. By developing my refereeing ability, confidence and experience, I can now use this both for my own growth as a player and coach and for the benefit of student teams at Tanglin.

Furthermore, planning touch sessions has been an area I have been able to improve. By going on this project, I have been being able to progress the quality of my planning of sessions to the benefit of my team. As the championships progressed, so did my team, therefore, we focused on different points as the girl’s game developed. Touch rugby is a team sport and has, therefore, provided me with the chance to work collaboratively with the players I am coaching. By working together, I can focus on their areas of improvement and they are able to give feedback to me on where they do not yet feel as confident as they should be. This ultimately has enabled me to develop further as a coach as I work with the Tanglin players.

This communication between the team and myself has been a key component of the project. I am very grateful and wish to give many thanks to the TTS Foundation for enabling me to be able to use my coaching and refereeing expertise at this once in a lifetime event.