Importing British Expertise

Australian coaches, trainers, administrators and players continue to occupy some prestigious positions in British sport. In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a smattering of Australian ancestry, a Grandma in Geelong or an Aunt in Alice is a passport to riches through service to sport.

A British based Company is bucking the trend. One of Australia’s greatest sports teams, the New South Wales Waratahs has decided to ignore convention and import British talent in the shape of SAQ® INTERNATIONAL and its Managing Director, Alan Pearson. While Alan has spent many years living and working in Australia, helping to draft and implement the recommendations of their Disability Services Act amongst other things, it is his first opportunity to really put the brilliance of the SAQ® Programme to work, especially with a member of the Australian elite.

Waratahs’s Director of Rugby, Bob Dwyer was behind the call to bring SAQ® Training™ across the world to develop and implement programmes in their build up to the Super 12’s Competition. With the first match a little over 5 weeks away and many players only just returning from international duty the task of conditioning a squad of players meant only one thing – “Get SAQ® over here, NOW!!”.

Hard running loose-forward, David Lyons, explodes away during training

In his foreword to the bestselling ‘SAQ® RUGBY’ (by Alan Pearson, A & C Black of London), Bob Dwyer recognises the SAQ® Programme as behind the leaps and bounds made by Rugby Union conditioning in the Northern Hemisphere - “I would go so far as to say that the SAQ® Rugby Programme is the most influential performance enhancing tool that I have seen in the last five years”. He is not alone in recognising the critical contribution of our applied sports science technology to world rugby.

Dave Reddin, National Fitness Director, England Rugby in a recent visit to SAQ® INTERNATIONAL’s European Training Headquarters reiterated his ongoing faith in all things ‘SAQ®’, setting up a new deal through him to equip every member of England’s World Cup Squad with their very own pack of SAQ® Equipment. Given the Waratahs contract you’d have to say that this deal is more of an essential than ever.