Advertisement

Youngsters train with their Saracens heroes

Young rugby stars were put through their paces in Harrow
Young rugby stars were put through their paces in Harrow

HARROW U14s were put through their paces by Saracens in a training session this week and flying wing David Strettle left the youngsters with a clear message – stick with it and you can make the grade.

Gallagher Premiership Rugby speedster Strettle, full-back Alex Goode and legendary Springbok back-rower Schalk Burger all helped deliver the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the youngsters, passing on some of their experience in the evening training session in Harrow.

And Strettle, who has earned 14 England caps and made almost 150 Gallagher Premiership Rugby appearances, passed on plenty of valuable coaching tips as well as general advice for the youngsters.

“Harrow won the Gallagher ‘Train with your Heroes’ competition because their club embodies the spirit of the rugby community,” commented Strettle.

“We’re training with the boys and showing them a little bit about what it’s like to be a professional rugby player and do some core skills training.

“We’re obviously lucky as professionals to play at the weekend and lots of people watch us do it, but the boys here can actually see the training that goes on day in day out, the teamwork and the respect between the players.

“Days like this are so important – it shows players at U14 level how we play and how we train.

“They’ll realise that we’re not superheroes, we make mistakes and drop balls, it’s just that if you stick with it you can make the grade.”

Strettle was speaking at a Gallagher ‘Train with your Heroes’ session at Harrow RFC after their U14s side won a nationwide competition launched by Gallagher, a passionate community insurance broker and proud title partner of Premiership Rugby.

Harrow RFC won by describing how their team embodies the spirit of rugby, both on and off the pitch, and helps grow the game locally.

The versatile Jamie Horsley, 14, plays at both hooker and fly-half for Harrow, and spoke about the memorable training session with three top Gallagher Premiership Rugby players.

“I really feel already that it’s helped us improve on things,” said Jamie. “We’ve done a lot on communication on the pitch, all my friends and teammates are here and it’s been a good session.

“We found out a couple of weeks ago that the Saracens players, who are really good by the way, and really funny, could help us train for a night!

“We’ve been really looking forward to it, we’ve all been discussing it over the last few weeks and been a bit giggly about it, a bit anxious, but anxious in a good way! More like excitement!

“It’s great that Gallagher have put on this session because it’s going to help our rugby, we get to meet some world class players and improve the club all round.

“Hopefully if other people see what we’re doing as a club with sessions like this it’s going to reform their club and they might get opportunities like this too.”

David Strettle was speaking at a Gallagher ‘Train with your Heroes’ session at Harrow RFC after their U14s side won a nationwide competition launched by Gallagher, a passionate community insurance broker and proud title partner of Premiership Rugby.