Outstanding player,great captain...probably the best hooker ever and a massive influence in rugby...willing to share and and promote rugby in minnow nation.
Fitzpatrick takes Georgia role
ESPNscrum Staff
January 29, 2011
Sean Fitzpatrick holds up a Georgia shirt at a press conference in Tbilisi © Getty Images
Enlarge
Related Links
News: Namibia primed for Nations Cup defence
News: Georgia claim Canada win
News: Favourites suffer shock defeats at Nations Cup
Players/Officials: Sean Fitzpatrick
Tournaments/Tours: IRB Rugby World Cup
Teams: Georgia
Former All Black skipper Sean Fitzpatrick will act as an advisor to the Georgia national side ahead of their participation in the World Cup in the autumn.
Fitzpatrick, who captained the All Blacks in the 1990s and won 92 caps for New Zealand, will take on an advisory role to the national team as well as acting as an ambassador in a bid to develop the game in the country which was formerly part of the Soviet Union.
"What I'd like to try and achieve is to make a nation like Georgia more competitive on the world stage," Fitzpatrick told a news conference in Tbilisi.
Georgia qualified for their third successive World Cup after winning the 2009 European Nations Cup. And they aim to use the 2011 campaign to continue to build the game.
"Sean's help and fresh ideas will increase the possibilities for Georgian rugby," said the president of the Georgian Rugby Union, Giorgi Nijaradze.
"It's a sign of how rugby is developing in Georgia that someone of the stature of Sean is willing to come here, and his experience is going to be of immeasurable value," said the national team's Scottish coach, Richie Dixon.
Fitzpatrick was impressed by Georgia's performances in the 2007 Rugby World Cup and is relishing the challenge of developing the game away from one of rugby's traditional superpowers.
"What I saw was a country that has a whole lot of passion and commitment," he said. "It would have been very easy for me to stay in England or New Zealand but I think it's important to grow the game."
Georgia have been drawn in a group with Argentina, England, Scotland and Romania for the World Cup, which begins in September.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Read more at http://www.espnscrum.com/other/rugby/story/133350.html#GqY5CPzh4jPhk18O.99
Rugby Gets Professional Profile
Special to The St. Petersburg Times
Published: August 6, 2004 (Issue # 992)
Legendary All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick
helping to train young Russian rugby players at Fili Rugby Club, in Moscow.
Photo: Igor Tabakov / For The St. Petersburg Times
In the world of rugby union, Georgia dominates the CIS and Krasnoyarsk is the capital of Russia.
This balance of power may not last forever, however, if the Moscow rugby establishment has its way.
The Rugby Union of Russia is working on emerging from the shadow of Georgia - which the national team hasn't beaten in a decade - by building up the profile and professionalism of the Russian game.
Officials also hope that possible recognition of rugby by the International Olympic Committee will bring a significant increase in funding from the state to allow the country to match its clout in other Olympic sports.
Meanwhile, Moscow's expatriate rugby community has been using its resources to raise the profile of the game in the capital - drafting some of rugby's biggest names to help out.
Currently, if not in decline, the Russian national team could be said to be languishing in the doldrums of mediocrity.
The team reached a low point during the last World Cup, when the Russian team sat out the competition over a disagreement about players' grandparents. The still hotly disputed spat with the International Rugby Board cost Russia its place when it was disqualified on the grounds that three South African-born players were not proved to be eligible; Russian officials claimed that all have Russian grandparents.
Funding is so poor that professional players from Moscow are forced to spend days on trains to play games in Siberian cities such as Krasnoyarsk. The teams then spend several weeks playing a series of games before taking the grueling return journey.
There is, however, hope that the Russian game can be brought to a new level both in terms of financing and professionalism.
On the field, the national sevens side recently qualified for the World Cup in Hong Kong next March, while the 15-a-side team is the current holder of the Superpowers Cup, having beaten China, the United States and Japan in the inaugural tournament last year.
It is in the youth sides, however, that hope of long-term revival lies, and clubs are starting to realize this.
"Clubs are now punished if they don't have a youth program," said Dmitry Afinogenov, the international liaison officer of the Rugby Union of Russia.
