February 7 marked our inaugural Coaches’ Workshop, the first in a series of activities to upskill our volunteer coaches and say thank you for their incredible efforts with the at-risk youth. We also opened the evening to Wanneroo Districts Rugby Union Football club coaches, whom contributed to a great turnout.

Our inaugural Coaches’ Workshop featured a workshop from current Wallaroo’s Head Coach Dwayne Nestor. Dwayne has worked in the sporting industry and, in particular, in coaching for over 20 years and drew upon his wealth of knowledge to empower our coaches to better engage with youth.

P2S RUGBYWORKS would like to extend a thank you to Wanneroo Districts Rugby Union Football club for providing the venue and to Gourmet Grazing for sponsoring catering.

Rugby works for disadvantaged kids

The Australian Buildcorp Wallaroos may have met their match at Optus Stadium on Saturday, but one organisation is a winner because of two players, in particular.

Cottesloe Rugby Club’s Rebecca Clough and Queenslander Sarah (“The Beast”) Riordan are ambassadors for P2S RUGBYWORKS, a Perth-based charity that assists disadvantaged kids into the workforce via the medium of rugby.

The pair was joined by Buildcorp Wallaroos head coach Dwayne Nestor and deputy Matthew Tink in a pre-test function at Perth City’s Quay hotel before a large audience on Thursday night.

The women spoke of their careers and being seen as role models for young women taking up the sport and how they get to interact with youngsters in the RUGBYWORKS programme.

P2S RUGBYWORKS Founder & CEO Fraser Griggs, gave the keynote speech about how the charity is trying to “break the cycle” when it comes to disadvantaged youth falling through the cracks in education and being prepared for a working life.

“P2S RUGBYWORKS is a progressive long-term employability program to help young people develop life values; a new approach to tackle social exclusion and mental health issues”

“Our aim is to promote social inclusion and ensure our youngsters can achieve long-term, sustainable education, training and employment as an integral part of their communities”

Sadly for the Buildcorp Wallaroos, they were unable to break the Silver Ferns hoodoo, going down to world champion New Zealand 47-10 before a world-record women’s rugby audience of 30,342.

Clough ran on to the field late in the match for her 23^rd international cap when the match was unfortunately beyond winning.

Ends

Pictured (from left) are Assistant Coach Matthew Tink, Wallaroo Sarah Riordan,  P2S RUGBYWORKS Founder & CEO Fraser Griggs, Wallaroo Rebecca Clough, Head Coach Dwayne Nestor and Wallaby #828 Richard Brown.

We are delighted to announce that Bob Dayman, our Head of Coaching this morning hitched his caravan and headed north to the Midwest to start work with our new coaches; Matty Tyler and Leena East, in Geraldton. Why? Because we are launching P2S RUGBYWORKS sessions with the youngsters at the Geraldton Flexible Learning Centre this term!

Bob will be showing Matty and Leena the ropes with regard to the mixture of outdoor and indoor sessions they will need to conduct to follow the RUGBYWORKS curriculum and help develop their youngsters to enable them to aspire to, and achieve a sustainable future in education, training and employment.

We are very excited to be taking our first steps into Regional WA and would like to thank Jess McLaren, Associate Head of Campus, for allowing us to introduce our WA Police-endorsed program into her care school.

We are now actively seeking corporate sponsors in the Geraldton area to help with kit and equipment for the sessions and to also provide employability insights to the participants.

P2S RUGBYWORKS Inc. CEO, Fraser Griggs stated ‘We are so pleased with the success we’ve had in the Perth Metro area since our inception in December 2017 that we have been actively seeking opportunities to take our proven program out to the ‘at-risk’ youngsters in regional WA. We are so thankful to Jess and also Tom Gorman for researching our work and giving us this opportunity. We’d like to welcome both Matty and Leena to our team and would encourage any other community focused volunteers to contact us, no matter where in WA they reside to explore the opportunity to join our team of passionate volunteers and launch P2S RUGBYWORKS in their area.’

Jess McLaren commented ‘Geraldton Flexible Learning Centre is honoured to work with P2S RUGBYWORKS to offer this exciting program in the Midwest. RUGBYWORKS is a reputable and endorsed program that provides quality training to facilitators, delivers an evidence based program to young people and benefits the entire community. We look forward to providing an opportunity for Geraldton’s young people to develop personal and interpersonal skills through rugby, with the aim of increasing employability and improving life outcomes. Both organisations have collaborated over a six-month period to ensure that the program is staffed and implemented to its full potential. We thank Fraser, Bob and the RUGBYWORKS team for working towards this and we look forward to the long term successes in providing positive opportunities to disenfranchised youth in our community’.

P2S RUGBYWORKS are pleased to welcome another high profile ambassador to our team to help us spread the word, grow the game and inspire our marginalised youngsters.

Cobie-Jane Morgan joins us from her Brisbane base after a glowing endorsement from Wallaroos Head Coach & P2S RUGBYWORKS Coaching Ambassador Dwayne Nestor.

We asked Cobie-Jane to tell us a bit about herself and her motivation for joining our team:

Who I am-

Plumber by trade, teacher by day.

Have recently changed careers and made the move from Sydney to Brisbane and fortunate enough to then be selected into the Qld Super W squad.

Played for the Wallaroos since 2009 as my first debut in Samoa was a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup.

Very passionate about helping others in all facets of life and hoping to inspire many young Australian kids to be the best version of themselves.

Age- 29

Location- Brisbane

Motivation- Everyday the sun rises and it’s a new opportunity to be a better version of yesterday. I am inspired by many strong women who have impacted my life not just in sport but life in general. I have been surrounded by independent strong wahine (women) who have culturally, emotionally & physically shaped me to be the woman I am today & I hope I can pass that legacy on to the future generation.

Rugby & any form of training or physically activity  is my outlet & if I can impact one youngster positively in this form I know I’ve succeeded.

P2S RUGBYWORKS are delighted to welcome a new ambassador to our ranks – hopefully the first of many in the coming weeks, ahead of our extensive 2019 Coaching Program.

Sarah Riordan 26, is a Brisbane based Wallaroos International playing with both West’s Bulldogs and the Queensland Reds. Sarah’s motivation in joining P2S RUGBYWORKS is “to be the best I can be, whilst trying to influence others and younger girls to do the same”Sarah added, “I’m excited to be on board and can’t wait to get started”

P2S RUGBYWORKS Inc. CEO, Fraser Griggs commented ’Sarah is a great addition to our team alongside Bec Clough and Marcel Brache who do invaluable work as role models for our youngsters and we hope Sarah will be the first of a number of new arrivals in the next few weeks. Sarah will provide great insight and encouragement to our youngsters through a variety of media and will connect directly with the students whenever she is in WA through her rugby commitments. We are fully committed to become a statewide program in the next couple of years with our ambition to be a WA based nationwide program in the longer term. Sarah will be a tremendous asset to help P2S RUGBYWORKS Inc. and our youngsters achieve our goals and objectives.