EXPATRIATE Andy Lawrence has been having a ball of a time with his involvement in rugby with the Klang Valley-based Bintang Rugby Club (BRC).
Although he had played the robust physical contact sport briefly at school level in his country of origin Britain, the 42-year-old BRC secretary’s engagement in rugby only took off when his family shifted from Vietnam to Malaysia back in 2003.
Andy offered his assistance as a volunteer when both his sons — Charlie and Mark — joined the Cobrats junior rugby programme in Petaling Jaya.
Watchful eyes: Andy with SM Sains Selangor long serving coach Raja Idris Raja Ali. From then, Andy admitted his family’s social life has been revolving around rugby.
“It got more serious when we started BRC along with other volunteers in 2005. We are pleased with the tremendous growth after we formed the club officially in 2007.
“Besides creating a friendly social atmosphere, the volunteers have been showing unwavering commitment in offering their unconditional services.
“It has been a rewarding experience to offer an opportunity for the children to learn the game with structured programmes under a controlled environment. It has been a joy exploring rugby with others in the club.
“It will be great to move up to another level and assemble a decent senior team to put up a fight at the top level of the local league,” said Andy, who hails from Warrington, England.
Currently, a total of 250 trainees aged between five and 19 are going through the paces in the BRC’s training programmes under the watchful eyes of 20 trainers over the weekends.
“For the foreign children representing the club at various local meets, they have been seeing more of the country and gaining better understanding of the local culture during their stay here,” said Andy.
He added that they have also fielded teams for international playing stints in Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan and were also looking forward to visiting Australia and New Zealand next season.
Since 2008, they have also been maintaining their link with the English rugby club Saracens to enhance their coaches’ knowledge.
They are not expecting the Saracens’ visitors to come over at the end of this year but are hopeful that the experienced coaching crew from Saracens will return to conduct a series of coaching clinics for both children and coaches of international and public schools at the beginning of next year.
Over the years, they have also been offering the chance for Malaysian youngsters to scale greater heights through their on-going collaboration with selected public schools including the formidable SM Sains Selangor and Negri Sembilan Sports School sides.
“In the past, we knew the Malaysian youngsters are promising athletes. They have complemented their athleticism with better ideas in executing the strategies in the full contact rugby.
“They have shown great progress in the game. Visiting teams with strong tradition in rugby from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England were impressed with their high level competitiveness,” said Andy, who has gained International Rugby Board (IRB) Level One and Two coaching qualifications.
This year, the 16-year-old Mark has returned to Britain to pursue his college education.
He will also continue to develop his rugby skills playing either as fly-half or inside-centre with the Saracens Under-18 Academy.
Mark’s move has also inspired his 13-year-old brother Charlie to follow suit.
“My wife (Ruth) and I are planning to live in Malaysia,” said Andy who has signed up for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme.
FACT FILE
Name: Andy Lawrence
Date of Birth: Jan 9, 1969
Hometown: Warrington, England
Occupation: Chemical trader
Hobby: Golf
Favourites Sports Personality: Jonny Wilkinson (England)
Education: Stockton Heath County High School
Coaching Qualifications
- IRB Level One and Two
Contributions
- BRC secretary and junior coach
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