The Trinidad and Tobago Rugby Football Union (TTRFU) will conduct a screening session for players selected on recent senior national and Under-19 national teams.

The first screening and training session was scheduled for yesterday at the Harvard pitch and was conducted by visiting International Rugby Board (IRB) coach, New Zealander Murray Roulston.

Roulston is  assisting with the preparation of the T&T national Sevens team for the upcoming NACRA Sevens championship.

He is also charged with conducting  an audit on the technical and tactical level of local rugby.

And Roulston will select and prepare a TTRFU Under-21 team for two games against a TTRFU President’s XV, to be played in early December and which will be used to assess and identify players to be selected for the national senior team pathway programme. 

 A former assistant coach of New Zealand-based Hurricanes and Highlanders Super 14 professional rugby union teams, Roulston, former director of coaching for the Otago Rugby Union, was assistant coach of the Hurricanes for five seasons and spent one season with the Highlanders.

The New Zealander has also assisted with the coaching of the Otago NPC side and New Zealand Colts and was a technical advisor for the 2006 Vodafone Wellington Lions in the Air New Zealand Cup competition, while also having stints in Japan and Romania.

Since arriving in Trinidad in late September, Roulston, who was recommended by the IRB’s Lee Smith, has provided the TTRFU with the depth of knowledge and technical and tactical analysis that will be shared with local coaches during a series of coaching development workshops that will be hosted by the Union over the next two months.

TTRFU president Leslie Figaro has expressed satisfaction with the clarity and direction that Roulston is bringing to the TTRFU as the local rugby union charts the way forward for rugby in Trinidad and Tobago.

’We have had tremendous support and guidance from the IRB, the IRB Trust, and Tom Jones (NACRA general manager) over the last decade,’ said Figaro.

’The Ministry of Sport has also contributed immeasurably to where we are at now in terms of Caribbean rugby. This particular initiative complements the support we continue to receive from the IRB. We  (TTRFU) are determined to get to the next level and be competitive with Canada and the USA. We have had to be very honest with ourselves. Last year we did not achieve two key strategic objectives.We did not get past Brazil and neither win the NACRA Sevens. Roulston has identified why we failed and what we must do to address those shortcomings,’ he analysed.

Figaro added that the TTRFU will do what it believes is necessary to improve. He acknowledged that not everyone will support or agree with the decision to bring in Roulston .

’The bottom line is that we want to go further than just winning Caribbean championships. I am confident that our ambitions are realistic. I am also confident that our local coaches and players have the capability and will benefit from Murray’s technical and tactical knowledge, and experience,’ he concluded.