Senior Representative Coach for 2012 announced

10-Oct-2011

We are delighted to announce that Andrew Skipper has accepted the position as Head Coach of the Darling Downs Senior Representative team in 2012. Andrew has a wealth of experience and we are very fortunate to have someone of his calibre involved with us. By way of example, for the past nine years Andrew has worked in professional coaching and rugby development positions in the United Kingdom. This included positions as a Youth Development Officer (YDO), Director of Rugby at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich and, more recently, Club and Coach Officer with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and assistant coach at Cambridge RUFC. Andrew possesses a Level Two Coach Accreditation with the Australian Rugby Union and a Level Three Coach Accreditation with the England Rugby Football Union (RFU). Andrew also undertook the role of RFU Coach Educator and Mentor in his time in the UK. Andrew also has an impressive playing record including captaining Queensland Subbies in 2000 and 2001 and representing the Australian Army Core (RAEME) team and South Queensland Army team whilst serving in the military. Andrew presently resides in Warwick where he teaches at TAFE and is studying secondary school teaching part time.

This is great for Downs Rugby as Andrew will be able to leverage off all the tremendous work that Evan Willis has done over the last two years in the role. There is also some great talent to work with given the good number of Downs players who represented South Queensland and Country teams in 2011 which will be combined with the unearthing of new talent from the Finals series this year”.