Around 60 Welsh academy players were invited to a skills session by the Welsh Rugby Union on Monday evening. The session, held at the National Centre of Excellence, was the WRU’s second of the season and was led by Wales U20s head coach Richard Whiffin.
A host of senior academy players from Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys, RGC and Scarlets were in attendance. It follows last week’s senior alignment camp, when 50-odd players were brought in by Steve Tandy ahead of the new season.
Coaches involved
The session is part of a concerted effort by the governing body to create stronger alignment throughout the Welsh game. As well as Whiffin, WRU pathway coaches Marc Breeze, Neil Jenkins, Richie Pugh and Josh Turnbull took part. A number of club coaches, including Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Hancock, James Hook, Scott Sneddon and Gareth Williams, were also involved. Men’s national team coach Dan Lydiate also helped deliver the activity.
“I think we had 15 coaches (here in total) from within the senior set-up, the regions and obviously the national 20s with all eyes on players,” said Whiffin.
Skills and drills
The four-hour session had players ranging from U19 to U22, focusing on core skills and technical details. Following gym work as well as kicking and throwing workshops, there were various rotations focusing on skills like scrummaging, ball carrying, offloading, tackle technique and attacking shape.
“We had a kicking session early with Neil Jenkins, James Hook, Leigh Halfpenny and Scott Sneddon taking all 30 of the backs and going through their different positional skill sets,” added Whiffin. “Marc Breeze was with the hookers and then we had all 60 players together looking at different parts of the game that we want them to be able to take the transfer from our training session tonight back to their clubs, back to their regions, back to their Super Rygbi Cymru games and develop for international honours later in the year.”
Future plans
Whiffin was behind the original concept, which is now in its third season. “Ultimately we’re looking at improving players, aligning players to our game model, but ultimately having them competing against each other,” he said. “The more times we get best v best, the more we’re going to get players come out the top end.”
More sessions are planned over the coming weeks. “So every two weeks we’ve got a touch point with the players,” said Whiffin. “This September block is open to all academy players. As we get into October, it will be a little bit more selected around our 20s group and then as we move into November, December again into more matches. But every two weeks we’ll have a touch point with the academies around these skills evenings.”
“This September to December block is all around connecting with the players, improving the players, but giving them an opportunity to put their hand up for Test matches post-Christmas. We obviously have Six Nations and Junior World Cup (next year), and they are two big targets that we go after. But aligned with that, we have four under-19 Test matches against good opposition - France, England, Ireland and Scotland. So we almost get a Six Nations for those under-19s players as well. The key thing is getting players in the red jersey.”
