Keep us updated mate, would love to hear about the grassroots in Sweden.
I played a few games in Netherlands before buggering my neck. They had a great community of big farming Dutchmen (that the Dutch focus on soccer and bloody hockey is a criminal waste of a rugby physique) and European 'expats'. One memorable bloke was a hard French guy, rumoured to be ex-military. He broke and dislocated his ankle in a sevens match, was carried off to the ED with the pethidine whistle between his teeth before being carried back to the bar that afternoon with the whistle replaced by a pint.
The bar was run by a cranky old local called Frans, who had never played rugby and had no other affiliation with the club, other than pulling beers for the singing hordes.
Great memories.
Very familiar with the Dutch comp. I spent 5 years in Germany coaching and we went over to Holland quite a bit to play pre season games or tournaments with the youth. With the experience in Germany , and knowing the challenges they faced with Rugby being a minority sport, its even more of a minority sport in Sweden (hence their national team playing a division below the now relegated German team) .
Basically my role is mainly youth based . im developing the youth dept at my club (although I am supporting all teams in the club in some respect) but also in the region (county or state) . Also involved in the age grade national set ups. Went to a development conference with the U18 national team in Poland a few weeks ago . Was awsome. there was us, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine involved. Rugby Europe has restructured the pathway and format for the developing nations across 3 tiers based on their competition structure and High performance pathway. The Sweden Union has since restructured its pathway and will regionalise the HPP academy set ups around the country , Im heading up the South region one and will probably start up in 2020.
It really is nice playing in summer, temperatures are in the 20-25 degree range and provides a good party / festival atmosphere in game days. We had our first home game a couple of weeks ago against one of the top teams, and we drew a crowd of around 500-600 people. When finals come apparently they get around 1000 to the game.
Ill keep you guys posted!
