{"id":2882,"date":"2014-10-23T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2014-10-23T12:00:52","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T11:00:52","slug":"ray-williams-wins-prestigious-irb-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/ray-williams-wins-prestigious-irb-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray Williams Wins Prestigious IRB Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ray<\/a>
\nRay Williams Wins Prestigious IRB Award
\nPioneering rugby coach and dedicated administrator Ray Williams has been named as the 2014 winner of the prestigious Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service as a mark of the significant positive contribution he has made to the game throughout his lifetime. <\/p>\n

In 1967, Williams changed the way rugby coaching operated when he was appointed as the first full-time Welsh Rugby Union coaching organiser. His innovative and inspirational approach to the game involved the application of a scientific approach to coaching technique and was ahead of its time. <\/p>\n

He was appointed secretary of WRU in 1980, a position he carried out with dedication and distinction until 1988. He then became a national representative on the General Committee of the WRU and was also the Union\u2019s representative on IRB Council from 1993-97. He successfully carried out the duties of Tournament Director of Rugby World Cup 1991. <\/p>\n

IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: \u201cThe IRB Awards recognise those who have inspired and encouraged our family to grow, to thrive and reach out. Ray Williams is a wonderful example of how, through his dedication to our sport and its character-building values, rugby can change lives, bring people together and provide tremendous camaraderie. He is a worthy winner of this prestigious award as someone who changed for the better the way the game was coached while also managing to stay true to the game\u2019s core values.\u201d <\/p>\n

WRU President Dennis Gethin said: \u201cRay Williams took his ideas to the world and the world came to Wales to listen and to learn from him. People from far and wide came under his influence and his ideas contributed to the way the modern game has developed over the past four decades. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can think of no more deserving winner of the Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service and on behalf of the WRU I wish to thank Ray for his unfailing service to the game over such a long period of time.\u201d <\/p>\n

The award will be presented to Williams at a special ceremony next week in Llanelli. <\/p>\n

Previous winners of the Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service <\/p>\n

2013 \u2013 Ian McIntosh (South Africa)
\n2012 \u2013 Viorel Morariu (Romania)
\n2011 \u2013 Jock Hobbs (New Zealand)
\n2010 \u2013 Jean-Claude Baque (France)
\n2009 \u2013 Noel Murphy (Ireland)
\n2008 \u2013 Nicholas Shehadie (Australia)
\n2007 \u2013 Jose Epalza (Spain)
\n2006 \u2013 Brian Lochore (New Zealand)
\n2005 \u2013 Peter Crittle (Australia)
\n2004 \u2013 Ronnie Dawson (Ireland)
\n2003 \u2013 Bob Stuart (New Zealand)
\n2002 \u2013 Allan Hosie (Scotland)
\n2001 \u2013 Tom Kiernan (Ireland)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray Williams Wins Prestigious IRB Award Pioneering rugby coach and dedicated administrator Ray Williams has been named as the 2014 winner of the prestigious Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service as a mark of the significant positive contribution he has made to the game throughout his lifetime. In 1967, Williams changed the way rugby coaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1836],"tags":[179,7,1388,1386,1387,1173],"class_list":["post-2882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","tag-award","tag-irb","tag-prestigious","tag-ray","tag-williams","tag-wins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2884,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intouchrugby.com\/connacht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}