Warrington Wolves welcomed two young players from Saudi Arabia last week as the club continues to expand its development programme. Rackan Saad Al Moukhtar (pictured) and Farid Abdulwahab, both 16, joined the club for a week’s development with the youth performance department. Rugby league is a growing sport throughout the Middle East, and the pair were selected following Saud Schools Select’s victory in the 2011 MENA Championship, which took place in Beirut in March. The week included a tour of both The Halliwell Jones Stadium and University of Chester Warrington training campus along with numerous skills and conditioning sessions, community coaching visits and academy training sessions, along with a visit to Barrow Island in Cumbria for a coaching day of junior players. Their visit was rounded off at Wembley Stadium to watch the Carnegie Challenge Cup Final.
Both are part of the Saudi team which has been the Middle East champions for the last two years. Remond Safi, MENA Regional Director for the Rugby League European Federation, and David Kinkead, the boys’ coach in Jeddah, also paid a visit to see how they were settling in and to observe Warrington’s practices. Farid said: “I first got interested in the sport when my rugby coach David Kinkead came to our school and started teaching us how to play. That was over four years ago now.” He feels he’s learnt a lot from this experience. “Over the past few days I've learnt new skills in rugby and how to lift weights properly with good techniques to prevent injuries. When we return home I'll teach the others the skills that I've learnt during my stay and explain how much tougher rugby is over here. I've noticed that in training a lot more skill and fitness work is required.”
Rackan added: “I have learnt a lot of new skills that I will be able to take back to Saudi and pass onto my team. For example, some new passing skills and plays as well as ideas on how our team could become better. I will also take away some coaching skills, as I am the coach for the under 12s, I now have better ideas on how to do this. This experience will stick with me forever and I’m very glad I got this opportunity.”
He also noticed some key differences between the coaching here in England and back home. "The difference here is the way the team trains together. In Saudi we don’t have a gym that we can all use together. Also the level of dedication each player has to the sport, and the care that each player gets from all the coaches. Hopefully, rugby league in Saudi will become better. The sport is still new in the country but it’s growing ever day as more and more schools and countries in the Middle East are starting to play rugby league. Maybe some day my team will make it to England to play against Warrington and other teams.”
Director of Youth Development John Bastian said: “Farid and Rackan have been a credit to themselves and their families throughout the week. They have been very positive and pro-active in developing themselves and also in helping the community department on an away day to Barrow Island. The trip has been very successful for both rugby league and Warrington Wolves, and as a result we will continue to help promote and develop relationships and the sport in the Middle East in the future.”