The pupils of Godregraig Primary School in the Swansea Valley had a treat recently when Ospreys players Duncan Jones, Justin Tipuric and Ross Jones made a special visit.
The trio were invited to the school by Andrew Thomas, Ospreys Player Development Officer for the Afan Nedd District, who has recently hosted a series of coaching sessions with pupils, with the visit being a particular highlight for the youngsters from the close-knit community.
After joining in with some fundamental skills games the trio then enjoyed a question and answer session with their young fans, who were then lucky enough to get the players autographs and get some photos taken with them.
For Ospreys skipper Justin Tipuric, it was an enjoyable visit to one of the schools in his local community:
"Coming from just up the road in Trebanos I enjoyed having a chance to pop into a local school and spend time with young fans. It’s a very privileged position to be in and I’m honoured to be able to do things like this. You can see how excited the children get, and at times I think the teachers get even more excited. We are nearly all local boys at the Ospreys so it’s important that young fans can get to share time with us, and hopefully they’ll be inspired to want to play or watch rugby for the rest of their lives."
Duncan Jones echoed his comments, saying:
"It’s easy for young children who have only watched our games on television to look at us as some kind of stars, but it’s important that they realise we are just ordinary people living in the same local communities as them, and they can follow in our footsteps and maybe one day wear the Ospreys shirt.
"A way of doing that is to get into local schools and rugby clubs whenever we can for visits like this. It made for a memorable occasion for the children and hopefully we’ll see them all at the Liberty Stadium soon."