As a busy summer of delivering camps across the city continues, Leeds Rhinos Foundation hosted another successful U12s-U14s Player Development Day at Stanningley ARLFC for aspiring rugby league players, delivered as part of the England RL Talent Pathway programme.
The sessions, which were led by Leeds Rhinos Scholarship and Women’s team coaches, gave junior players the opportunity to experience training in a professional rugby environment and improve their core skills through a series of different drills at The Arthur Miller Stadium in Stanningley. These focused on a number of different key areas- including defensive contact, hand-eye co-ordination, speed, agility, decision making and game situations.
Throughout the day, over 120 players were in attendance, with more than 25 of the Foundation’s Ambassador community clubs being represented amongst the participants. Having once again opened up a girls’ only session in the afternoon, there was another strong showing from the next generation of Women’s Super League players who blew the coaches away with their highly impressive skill levels.
Ian Hardman, Rugby League Development Manager, said: “We’re delighted with how the Player Development Days have gone this summer, and the turnouts we’ve had at both Oulton and Stanningley have been really impressive.
“It’s so important that we deliver these sessions for players at that age because it’s a key stage of their development and not only does it give us a chance to look at some of the emerging talent coming through the community game, but it also gives them the chance to take away some pointers from really experienced, high quality coaches which will help them to grow and improve their game.
“We want to make it clear that even if they don’t get picked up on Scholarship at 14, there are still opportunities out there to keep developing and pathways where they can continue playing at the highest level possible, whether that’s in our ETP or Development Academy system or elsewhere.
“The coaches we have at our disposal are second to none and this is a brilliant experience for all the players who attend. The fact that we’re seeing so many familiar faces returning to each session we run just shows how much they enjoy them and want to use them as a platform to get to that next level.”
Check out our fully gallery from the Player Development Day at Stanningley ARLFC by clicking HERE to visit our official Facebook page.
For more information about Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s ETP programme, please contact ian.hardman@leedsrhinosfoundation.org.