Bok big guns head to Craven Week

The High Performance Department of the South African Rugby Union will be attending the Under-18 Craven Week in Port Elizabeth next week.

The SARU big wigs will present numerous workshops that will benefit the participating coaches and players at the tournament – scheduled for July 9 to 13.

SARU High Performance Manager Rassie Erasmus, his support staff and members of the Springbok management team will conduct clinics and workshops on numerous rugby related issues such as kicking, scrumming and performance plans during the week.

Springbok kicking coach Louis Koen will present kicking classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – with 25 kickers from the participating teams attending at a time.

Springbok scrum coach Pieter de Villiers will oversee a scrum presentation to be attended by front rows and coaches and where scrumming techniques will be practically discussed next Friday, July 13.

Erasmus, De Villiers and Koen will also join Charles Wessels (Senior Manager, Senior National Teams), JJ Fredericks (Springbok Logistics Manager) and Albie Visser (Springbok Technical Analyst) in a presentation to discuss all relevant High Performance matters.

This session will be attended by all participating teams and their management.

Commenting on this outreach program, SARU's CEO Jurie Roux said: "It is a great initiative by our High Performance Unit.

:It will be the first time that our professional structures will be fully utilized to benefit schools players and is part of our broader vision to grow the game by using our expanding base of experts.

"These inputs will be invaluable in the development of these players and coaches."