St. Bede's again well represented

Ten of our players took part in the three-night, four-day training camp run by the Cantabrians from Monday 18 July. The Cantabrians call for nominations in June each year and announce the accepted players soon after the cut-off date. The selection is oriented towards achieving a good spread of regional representation with players from teams in the U18 grade (not the Crusader Region 1st XV Championship) being involved. Two games are played between a Cantabrians team and a Sassenachs team.

Here is the basic outline of this year's camp from the Cantabrians Club

BURNHAM LIVE-IN RUGBY COACHING SCHOOL 18-21st JULY 2022

The Cantabrian Rugby Football Club is holding its annual live-in coaching school at Burnham Camp 18-21 JULY 2022 for boys 16.5 (on July 1st 2022) to 18 years of age and invites nominations from clubs / schools / unions for eligible boys to attend.

An interesting and varied programme is planned with NZ Rugby / World Rugby Educators and CRFU staff coaches conducting training and two matches will be played during the four days. Boys nominated must be able to live in a team environment during the school.

Noah Barrett: "An aspect I really liked was how much coaching and training we had to improve our game. We learned how to stay organised and focused on and off the pitch. It was also really good to listen to some professional players about their rugby journey and how they made it to a higher level. I found it good to meet new people and do activities with those people that took us out of our comfort zones."

Ollie Monks: " I found the coaching really good. It was good to meet new people from different schools and to get tips from players in the Crusaders Academy that I'm sure will help to improve my game."

Vili Fifita: "An aspect I really liked was the coaching. It was not only enjoyable but at the same time we were able to improve in all aspects of the game."

Dylan Butler: "I found it beneficial to strengthen existing relationships and to make new friends. I also found all the different point of views on rugby interesting and how everyone viewed the sport in different ways. Overall, the camp was an awesome experience and helped me gain more rugby knowledge and have a broader view of rugby, not only as a sport, but also as a community.

Joseph Fitzgerald: "I found the coaching really beneficial - learning new skills from coaches and players who have lots of experience, and getting tips off them."

Noah Allison: "I enjoyed being able to relate to and ask questions to the players in the Crusaders Academy. They gave us advice about how to improve on and off the field."

Christian Williams-Schwalger: "I enjoyed getting to know the boys better - making new connections and memories."

Jack Dennehy-Coles: "One aspect of the camp that I enjoyed was PT with "Sarge". We were divided into teams of forwards and backs and each had various pieces of equipment including a tackle bag, 10kg plates, a truck tyre, weight bars and Jerry cans filled with water assembled to look like an artillery gun. In our teams we had to race to move these objects to various locations throughout the camp and then re-assemble the gun facing in a different direction (north, east etc) first each time to try and gain points. Once we had assembled our gun we had to undertake various finishing challenges together including performing a haka, building a human chair and building a human pyramid as a team to try and gain points as well. These activities were fun, as it challenged us physically while also forcing us to work as a team with people we'd only met six hours earlier. It really helped with team-building and cohesiveness for our first game the next day."

Rheubyn Hunter: "An aspect that I enjoyed was meeting new people. I managed to meet lots of new people who all enjoyed playing the sport as much as I do. With the Cantabrians we managed to encourage each other and have a few laughs as a team, which really was great for our team bonding and I felt like it made me want to play even harder. Overall it was a great experience."