Stamford School
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They’re trained in how to look after any
injuries and are passionate about rugby.
“We’ve got great kids, great parents
and we try and provide them with a
rugby journey in which players have
fun and improve. If they’re getting
good coaching, are safe and have good
competitive opportunities then I think
that will ensure they want to be part of it.
“We do have some very good facilities
but our priorities are are on providing
the right experience for our players.
They benefit from the opportunities that
they have; the players learn a lot from
experiencing other sports I think. Seven of
our first team are involved with Leicester
Tigers and five of them play basketball
as well. I think that’s a key message for
us; we’re not saying to people that they
can only play rugby; we’ll support them
in taking part in other sports and believe
that that will benefit their rugby as well.
“Our ambition moving forward is
to continue to make sure that our rugby
environment is as safe as possible. We’re
always looking for ways of dealing with
injuries. We’re adding core movement
literacy to our year 7/8 rugby with a view
to them having better body management
over the next four to five years which
will reduce the risk of injury. We’re also
increasing our coach education with
the focus on technique to avoid the risk
of injury. I think that any rugby master
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has to have reduction at the top of their
agenda.
“Another ambition is making sure
that the game is as enjoyable as possible
for our players. We’ve introduced tag
rugby for those that don’t do full contact
rugby. As long as we find them a type
of rugby that they enjoy playing and are
involved in the game that’s a success for
us.
“Basically, we want more boys
playing in a safer environment. I think
winning matches is simply an outcome
at the end of the process so we focus on
the process being safe and fun. We like
to see boys playing representative rugby
and that’s simply because if we have
boys with talent we want to put them
in the right environment to continue to
develop.
“If in five years we’ve got more teams,
less injuries per game and more boys
continuing to play within three years of
leaving then that will be successful for us.
Players sticking with the game through
their adult lives is the ultimate sign of
success for our system.”