A milestone event has marked the start of the new rugby season at Loughborough College – and the launch of a pioneering programme.
World Rugby Women’s Player of the Year Sarah Hunter MBE was guest of honour at the inaugural tie presentation gathering players from across Academy Sport men’s rugby, including the first ever sevens performance squad on the UK’s only dedicated college programme of its kind.
The launch of the new men’s sevens programme comes hot on the heels of outstanding success for the women’s sevens squad at Loughborough College who were not only named 2018 Rosslyn Park national champions but also won gold in the Association of Colleges Sport national finals – and both squads are inspired by England and Team GB sevens stars including Megan Jones, Claire Allan and Alex Davis, who are all from Loughborough College.
Dave Edmunds, who heads the men’s rugby union programme said: ““Loughborough College is proud to lead the way with the UK’s first bespoke men’s sevens college programme and it will be fantastic to see the performance squad develop as individual players and as a team through specialist training and tournament games.
“It was an honour to welcome Sarah Hunter in to present the boys with their club ties and for her to talk to them about what it means to belong to a club and represent the badge, the College and Loughborough as a whole.
“The importance of having pride in what you do and in being part of a team and the College is just part of the culture we encourage across our programmes to enable our young athletes to develop not only in their sport but as people.
“As part of helping reinforce that belonging and mutual support, although our men’s and women’s rugby programmes are distinct and maintain their own identity, myself and new women’s coach Brad Jones will sometimes bring together the players for non-contact training to draw on each other’s skills and they will go along to watch each other’s games.
“The tie presentation was a great moment to mark the end of our pre season and the start of the year to come. We’ve had a fantastic summer and, with a really strong squad of players, we are excited about what lies ahead.”
Pictured: Loughborough College men’s rugby are joined by World Rugby Women’s Player of the Year Sarah Hunter MBE and their coach Dave Edmunds (right) at the inaugural tie presentation