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MEET THE TEAM
Nick Leah
Global General Manager
Nick has held multiple leadership & coaching roles over 20 years at all levels. These include ACT & Brisbane Premier Divisions with Uni-Norths & UQ Rugby, Super Rugby & Super Rugby Academy with the ACT Brumbies, ARC with the Melbourne Rebels, Japanese Top League with Kubota Spears and International 7’s with the Australian & Papua New Guinea Men’s 7’s Teams.
Nick started Australia’s first Commercial Academy with the University of Qld which has been the incubator behind the success of UQRFC in Brisbane Premier Rugby over the past 10 years.
Nick is a long term individual player development expert that has a 1 in 4 record of producing professionally contracted players.
Scott Saunders
GlobaL Head of Production and content
Scott has spent more than 30 years in the event and television industry as a technical producer and director, this has seen him produce major events throughout Europe, USA, Asia, Australia and the South Pacific.
With his passion for sport and playing rugby union for 35 years, Scott found himself entering the coaching ranks. He has been the Director of Coaching for several clubs and as well as Head Coach of the NSW Rugby Union Generation Blue U15’s Pathways Program since 2018. He has achieved a number of accolades, including; winning coach for NSW at the Australian Rugby Championships in 2019, and Runner Up in 2018 and was named NSW Rugby Union Youth Coach of the year in 2017.
Scott is also a level 1 Strength and Conditioning coach with ASCA and has completed courses at UNI QLD in Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and Talent Identification and Development (TID) programs.
Ross Gray
Global Head of sales
Ross was Director of Sales & Customer Support for Global Apptitude between 2013 and 2021. Was at the forefront of Client Led Development for both ‘GamePlan’ and ‘Match Review Portal’.
The ‘GamePlan’, ’Match Review Portal’ combination is used by New Zealand Rugby and its Sub-Unions to code and proliferate footage from all levels to Super Rugby.
Ross developed a similar systems for New Zealand Cricket and the Scotland Rugby Union. Ross has developed strong Customer Relationships across a variety of sports and World Class Organizations across Rugby, Cricket, AFL & Baseball spanning all Continents.
Prior to Global Apptitude, Ross spent 16 years at Xerox culminating as a Senior Sales Executive in the Strategic Business Unit.
Mick Byrne
Global Advisor
Mick is a two time Rugby World Cup winner with the All Blacks as assistant coach in 2011 and 2015. Classed as the number skills coach in the world by his peers, Mick’s coaching IP features heavily in the Six Degree Sports APPs.
As an elite athlete, Mick played in the AFL with the Hawthorn Football Club, winning a premiership in 1983 before beginning a career as a high performance skills coach.
Mick has coached in the NRL, AFL and Super Rugby and consults in the corporate sector on high performance. A skilled and trained facilitator, Mick has qualifications in the psychology of coaching and contributed to the editing of a book investigating the use of Sports Psychology in elite performers across the AFL, Golf, Australian & West Indian Cricket.
In late 2020 Mick was contracted as the Head Coach of the Canadian Women’s Rugby Sevens side for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics before being approached by the new Super Rugby franchise FIJIAN DRUA and appointed the Head Coach for the 2022/23 seasons.
Rod Kafer
GlobaL Advisor
Rod is a Rugby World Cup winner as a player with the Wallabies in 1999. He was the first player to win a World Cup and the major provincial rugby competitions in both hemispheres.
Rod was the Head Coach and Director of Rugby at Saracens RC between 2003 – 2005 and lends his IP as a player, coach and analysis to the Six Degree Sports APPs.
Ben Serpell
Global Atheletics performance partner
Ben has as PhD from the Australian National University in the prevention of ACL injuries and is a graduate of the Melbourne Business School Australian Institute of Sport Leaders Program.
Consulting to the Australian rugby, Ben was previously in Leadership Development at the AIS & Brumbies Rugby as the Director of Performance & Innovation between 2013 – 2020. Attesting to Ben’s overarching Programming Skills, Brumbies only missed one final series during this period.
Ben has also coordinated World Leading injury prevention and athletic performance programs in the AFL, Olympic sports, martial arts & cricket.