Categories: Club and Community Ulster

Lisnagelvin Pupils Link Up With Ulster Stars

Bank Holiday Monday saw some of Ulster Rugby’s top players take pupils from Lisnagelvin Primary School, the first prize winners of the Passionate About Rugby Competition, for a lively training session at Newforge.

The P6 pupils from Lisnagelvin Primary School were the overall in the recent Passionate About Rugby Competition, which was run in conjunction with the Bank of Ireland and the Belfast Telegraph.

As well as winning a kit bag packed with training goodies and a new set of made to measure rugby kit, the Lisnagelvin team also enjoyed a training session with some of the Ulster players and coaching staff.

The session, which was held at Ulster Rugby’s training ground at Newforge, was led by Ulster Assistant coach Neil Kelly and Paul Steinmetz with help from Mark McCall, Allen Clarke, Neil Best, Neil McMillan, Roger Wilson, Bryan Young, Paul McKenzie and Rory Best and followed a similar format to the training undertaken by the Ulster players each day.

After some introductions, Paul Steinmetz took the warm-up before the kids were split into three groups with each group working on a particular skill area.

Neil McMillan and Neil Best took a group working on passing skills, Paul Steinmetz and Paul McKenzie worked on evasion and side-stepping while Roger Wilson and Bryan Young focused on tackling. Each group of kids spent 15 minutes working on the particular skill area before everyone came together at the end for a very enjoyable and frenetic game of tag.

After the session, there was time for questions and some autograph hunting before the kids, as well as their parents and brothers and sisters, who had come along to watch, boarded their mini-buses for the trip home – it was thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for all involved.

The second prize winners in the Passionate About Rugby Competition were pupils from the Ben Madigan Prep School. As well as winning a set of new kit and a bag of training goodies, the pupils will be coming to watch the Ulster v Edinburgh Magners League match this Friday at Ravenhill.