Tridents events allow clubs to grow

The first part of the Trident events see primary school festivals arranged by WRU Participation Officers, which are held in the afternoon, with club development sessions then being run by Player Development Officers. During the evening, the Coach Development team also provides CPD events for coaches.

Porthcawl was the venue for the first event with 30 primary school children taking part in the festival run by Mikey Williams. Tom Cole, the Player Development Officer for Bridgend then led the club development element.

Tom said:

"The event in my eyes was a huge success with more than 120 kids turning up and a number of these coming back from the days earlier schools festival. They had the opportunity to interact with Ospreys players Matthew Morgan and Joe Bearman, which is an experience I'm sure they will never forget. Andrew Richards mini and junior sec for Porthcawl RFC was very grateful for the event and is sure that there are a number of new players that will be registered over the next few days."

At Abercrave, LisaJones had a very successful afternoon, and she said:

"During the day there were 93 children from 4 different schools at the club who participated in small sided, round robin Tag Rugby matches. All the teams had mixed participants and the children were encouraged not only in relation to their physical abilities but also their team work and efforts.

"Children present ranged from experienced club players to those who had never played rugby before. All the boys and girls did really well, demonstrating many key concepts of rugby and sport in general."

Andrew Thomas. Player Development Officer for Neath, ran the club development session at Abercrave and he said:

"From my perspective I spent 90 minutes with U7's, U8's, U9's, U10's, U11's working on conditioned games that focused on positional awareness, counter attack and listening and communication skills. With regard to the U14's I focused on pencil presentation to narrow the gate and laws around the tackle area for arriving players."

In excess of 90 children, including six girls, were in attendance for Andy's delivery.

Tony Thomas, WRU Coach Development Officer for the Ospreys, completed both days with a presentation on 'Game Sense Coaching' to a total of 20 club coaches. Tony said:

"The response from all who took part was extremely positive. It was very encouraging to receive feedback that indicated that they were really enthusiastic to take on board some new ideas"