Exiles Annual Screening Camp a Great Success
67 young players, vying for places in next season’s Exiles U17, U18, & U19 XVs, and indeed hoping to emulate the 14 who played for Ireland age-group XVs last season, attended the annual Camp.
…Some of the Exiles Players to have been capped at age grades for Ireland this season…
67 young players, vying for places in next season’s Exiles U17, U18, & U19 XVs, and indeed hoping to emulate the 14 who played for Ireland age-group XVs last season, attended the annual Camp at Brunel University, West London, on 30 June & 1 July past.
The IRFU battery of fitness tests was undertaken by all and it is just as well that players come prepared for such an event as the temperature rose above 30 degrees on the Saturday!
The field sessions were highly successful, not least because of the excellent inputs from IRFU staff such as Brian McLaughlin( National Skills Coach) and Graeme Steadman (National Defence Coach), provincial academy staff Colin McEntee, Richie Murphy, Ian Costello and Patrick Collins, and led by the Exiles Head Coach Peter Halsall, assisted by Danny Lyons. Compliments have been abounding, since the Camp, from players and parents, about the outstanding quality of coaching provision. Furthermore, the overall quality of player at the Camp continues to improve and a number of young men have already put down a marker for potential Ireland selection.
The field sessions were interspersed by relevant talks i.e. ‘sports psychology for the young player’, ‘injury prevention’ and ‘rugby & education’ (the latter for parents as well as players), to illustrate what we like to consider is the caring approach to the young player i.e. there’s more to our modus operandi than just your ability as a player.
For more on the Exiles click here.