Queensland Rugby Union (QRU) have today announced Rama Chand as the St.George Queensland Reds head coach for the 2021 Super W campaign.
Chand comes to the roll with significant experience throughout Queensland’s coaching pathway.
Having started his coaching journey in regional Queensland in Mackay, Chand coached both Men’s XVs and Sevens, as well as Women’s Sevens, in 2016 before moving onto representative rolls with Queensland Youth Boys Sevens.
Having moved to Brisbane in 2018, Chand has coached Queensland Junior Gold sides and further representative Sevens teams, whilst also coaching schools and Queensland Premier Colts at both GPS and Souths.
Most recently he coached the Queensland Youth Boys Sevens at the Battle of the Border Sevens.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity to continue on the hard work that has been done over the last few years within the program,” said Chand.
“We have a successful Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) Sevens Academy to complement the XVs program and we’ll also have some further developments in this space that will be announced shortly.
“The talent is abundant in Queensland and we’re trying to harness that and develop players that can go on to become future Wallaroos.
“We’ve also seen really good growth in Women’s club Rugby over the last few years, so it is exciting to also work with our clubs to continue to build the Women’s game.
“It’s disappointing to see the Rugby World Cup postponed, but that allows us to focus on the Super W program ahead and hopefully find some new players who can push for further honours.”
Queensland High Performance Manager, Sevens and Women’s Rugby – Reg Tayler said: “We’re looking forward to bringing Rama on board ahead of the 2021 Super W campaign.
“Rama has an extensive history coaching within the Queensland pathway across both Sevens and XVs, which is great considering we’re aiming to work more cohesively between the two formats of the game moving forward.
“Given Rama’s history in the game he has a great skill set that will allow us to continue to develop players and coaches within the Women’s game.”
2021 is shaping as an exciting year for Women’s Rugby in Queensland, following continued growth of the game at the grassroots level.
Last season saw all nine Queensland Premier Rugby clubs field Women’s teams for the first time ever, while we saw new competitions established in regional areas such as Far North Queensland, and the Queensland Suburban Rugby Union also introduced their first ever Women’s competition.
The 2021 Super W schedule will be announced in the near future, once the calendar of events is finalised after this week’s announcement regarding the postponement of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
