Along with the visit of Toronto this week the Community Department has continued to work hard on the development of Rugby League in North London. Along with visits to Primary Schools and Secondary Schools to promote the game we have also been busy pulling together the plans for the London Junior League U16’s & U18’s 9’s competition.
On top of this Monday evening saw the first in a 10-week pilot programme of Player Development Centres, in partnership with London Broncos and the London Foundation. The pilot is a wider part of the RFL Embed the Pathway programme, which seeks to improve player performance by widening the rugby league talent pool and offering high quality coaching to more aspiring young players.
The programme launched this Monday, with a good number of players in attendance from London Junior League teams across the North of the region along with several players from London Skolars Secondary School Programmes which is looked after by Player Development Officer Dion Chapman.
Similar programmes have been run historically by the RFL regionally, and successfully supported the progression of a number players the player pathway such as Tuoyo Egodo, Mike McMeeken, Joe Keyes, Illies Macani and Sadiq Adebiyi.
Community Development Manager Matt Cuss, who is heading up the North Centre spoke of the programme ‘it’s another fantastic opportunity for young players in the region to benefit from some real high quality coaching, and provide them with another stepping stone on the Rugby League pathway in London. It’s important that we expose our young players to as much Rugby League as possible, and these extra opportunities will only serve to increase the quality of player that London is producing.’
Cuss continued ‘we are encouraging all our U13’s & U14’s players from Skolars to attend, along with pushing it hard through all our school’s programmes, which will hopefully then see our numbers boosted at our U13 & U14 age groups.’
The Player Development Centre will run every Monday from 6.30- 8.00pm for 10 weeks with a break for Bank Holidays as follows:
North – London Skolars RL, New River Sport & Fitness, White Hart Lane, Wood Green, N22 5QW
Monday 27th February 6.30pm – 8.00pm
Players will be encouraged to attend every week, but are not required to attend every session to join the programme. The centres will be open to any male player currently in Year 8 or Year 9 at Secondary School, and are completely free of charge. Players of any standard or experience level are encouraged to attend, including those with no prior experience of rugby league.
