Rhino Collision King inventor Richie Gray and CEO Reg Clark recently visited the Georgian national side whose pre Rugby World Cup camp kicked off at 2010 French club champions ASM Clermont Auvergne. The Georgians, guided by former Scotland coach Richie Dixon, took delivery of two Collison Kings and Gray took the opportunity to coach the Georgians on the use of the machine at the same time as demonstrating it to ASM’s highly rated New Zealand coach Vern Cotter and Scottish Team Manager, Neil McIroy.
The visit also provided the opportunity for Richie Gray to renew acquaintance with French rugby legend Pierre Villepreux at his nearby birthplace of Pompadour. Pierre’s influence on the game goes way beyond his 34 caps as a fly-half and fullback for France between 1967 and 1972 and his role as assistant coach to the national side in the late 1990’s. A long standing proponent of free running rugby, Villepreux, now a senior advisor to the IRB, despite having famously described the ruck as a ‘failure’ throughout his coaching career, nevertheless was enthusiastic about the Collision King as a coaching aid designed to make players more efficient at recycling the ball quickly from the breakdown.
