Schools from across Cardiff descended on the University playing fields in Llanrumney last Thursday as the Blues development officers and the entire Blues squad held a training day, which is now becoming a common part of the Blues development system.
The day long course featured star players such as Nick Robinson, Craig Quinnell, Tristan Davies and Dan Baugh, heading small coaching groups that were focusing on specialist training drills designed to help the boys with their rugby development.
Cardiff Blues Community and Coach Development Manager Richard Hodges commented, From a logistical point of view this has been testing but now we are here, you can see that the rewards are huge for rugby development in the Blues region. Weve got over 100 children for both our morning and afternoon sessions, as over 25 schools from the Cardiff area have brought pupils along.
This type of event is something that we are looking to continue over the remainder of the season and obviously into future seasons.
As well as the Development Officers and Blues players, Conditioning Coach Trystan Bevan, Team Manager Allan Lewis and Director of Coaching Dai Young were casting a watchful eye over the days proceedings.
Dai Young was full of praise for the coaching session and added, Its a relatively quiet month for the team as we have no fixtures and some members of the squad are with the national team, so its vital that we are proactive in helping to develop junior and youth rugby in the region. As well as giving the players and youngster the chance to interact it gives the coaching team a great opportunity to identify talent.
The boys that we have here today are at that vital age of about 15 or 16 where they really start to show promise and glimpses of what they could possibly produce in the future.
He also pointed out, the significance of the development team servicing the entire region, commenting, We have to include the entire region with this development initiative and hence, by the end of the season we will have run coaching days at Corpus Christi, Llanhari, Cowbridge, Llanrumney, Merthyr, Treforest and twice in Brecon.
Tomorrow, the Blues squad will be visiting Treforest where they will be running another coaching day with the local schools and due to the growing popularity of this type of event, the turn out is expected to reach the 400 mark.