THE next generation of rugby stars have been given some expert coaching and advice at Cardiff and Vale College.

Dinas Powys student, Dan Watts, was one of the team lucky to receive a special session from former Wales internationals and current WRU skills coaches Chris Horsman and Geraint Lewis.

CAVC’s Rugby Academy provides a platform for dedicated young students who have an interest in performance and elite level rugby. It places the emphasis on balancing sporting and educational performance and has A License facilities such as specialist strength and conditioning gym and a team of experts including director Martyn Fowler who has more than 15 years to top level coaching under his belt. Previous Rugby Academy captain Joel Ringer has since gone on to play for giants Toulon.

Chris and Geraint led the team through a series of passing and tackling exercises, aimed at raising their game. The training was identical to sessions held for the Under 18s and Under 21s teams.

“The boys have done brilliantly,” Chris said. “They’re new into the competition and you can already see their enthusiasm and skill. They are going to make excellent progress.

“We are not showing them what to do – their coach does that. We are just supporting them to build their skills set but putting them through the training that the under 18s and under 21s get.”

“They were excellent,” Geraint added. “Martyn has started them off really well – they are a really talented bunch of players. It’s been great to come here this morning to try and help out.”

Dan Watts, 17, is the CAVC Rugby Academy captain, talking about the day he said, “It’s been really good to have these coaches here – you’re always going to learn more when training, especially with WRU skills coaches. It’s good for them to come here and teach us what they teach the senior team and regional Welsh teams.

“I’ve definitely learned a lot and hopefully that will show when we get out there and play.”

Chris explained: “It’s hugely important that we work with the college system to build and support skills. We have rugby academies in Wales and we have quite a small geographical area so we can work on building up links and improving the national game.”

“We we’re trying to do with the WRU skills coaches is to encourage the core elements of the game,” Geraint explained. “We try to get these young players to concentrate on the creative elements of the game and try to build up increasingly able rugby players who think and play at an international level.”