DeLory hails new World Rugby coaching programme

By James Reid

Canadian coach Emma DeLory believes two weeks working in an elite coaching environment can spur her onto even bigger things.

DeLory was one of ten coaches to take part in World Rugby’s Gallagher High Performance Academy, which seeks to accelerate the development of female coaches in the game.

This included working with Canada’s HSBC SVNS Series squad, as well as getting involved in workshops to develop skills to help boost the number of women working in elite roles.

And the SMU Huskies head coach is confident that fortnight is the perfect springboard for both her own ambitions and other female coaches around the world.

She said: “The development of women in sport, and specifically women in coaching, is a huge deal. I am really happy that Gallagher was able to come on board and support the programme.

“Being able to be in a full performance environment for two weeks, to be able to see in the ins and outs of the highest level of the game and be able to take that back into my environment and work in some of the learnings that I’ve got.

“The rugby community internationally is great anyways but having the network of women in coaching has been a huge bonus because we have a lot of the same problems, even if we didn’t realise it, so coming together and being able to talk about some of those issues has made it feel like you are not so alone in what you’re doing.

“I would love to see more women coaching professionally in the game at the highest levels. Being able to showcase this programme in front of the next generation of athletes and show them that they can have a career in coaching in this sport if they want and there is a real pathway, that would be success for me."

The programme’s inductees also included England international Sarah McKenna, with the Saracens back also highlighting the collegiate benefit of the two weeks spent between Vancouver and Los Angeles.

“We have seen each other in the hotel and around and about lots and checked in with each other, how they’ve found it and it has been really valuable checking in post-tournament and about our expectations prior to these two weeks and what happened,” DeLory said.

“A lot of it has been vastly different, a lot of us said we didn’t expect to be embedded in the team so quickly and it just showed how valuable we can be in those environments. I don’t think any of us realised what sort of an impact we could have.

“I have really enjoyed every experience so far. I want to keep enjoying myself as a coach, I know it gets tougher but as long as I keep enjoying it and I know I keep having an impact on people then I will keep doing it."

“I knew Gallagher sponsored the men’s Premiership but I didn’t know about their other programmes and it was something that was a surprise to me. It’s brilliant that a name like Gallagher are doing this and it is not just paraded about, there is some real meaning and purpose behind it.”