Spending time with starry-eyed youngsters from two Paarl primary schools this week brought back fond childhood memories for several Glasgow Warriors players.
The Warriors are in Cape Town to take on the Stormers in a top-of-the-table Vodacom URC clash on Saturday.
On Monday, Glasgow players interacted with around 100 young rugby players from Paarl Boys’ Primary and Nederburg Primary at the Paarl Boys’ High School fields on Monday.
ALSO: Muller to make Stormers debut
The event saw scrumhalf Jack Oliver, centre Johnny Ventesei, lock Ryan Burke, utility forward Dylan Cockburn, wing Fergus Watson and prop Fin Richardson do rugby drills with the local coaches and players.
The rugby clinic formed part of the URC’s Communities United campaign which encourages URC clubs to engage in cross-hemisphere community activities when teams are travelling.
“I remember back when I would go watch the Scotland team at Murrayfield. It was like my heroes,” said Richardson, who featured in Glasgow’s defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park last week.
“Right up until I became a professional rugby player, you do almost forget they [rugby stars] are humans. They really feel like superhuman people.
“So I try and remember that when we do stuff like this and imagine how excited I would have been if a team like the Stormers had come to my school.
“It’s great to give back and be a part of something like this. How cool this is for the kids and you can just see the excitement in the kids’ faces.”
Oliver said: “It’s great just to put a smile on the kids’ faces because we were in the same shoes as them back in the day.
“I grew up in Ireland and [former Ireland scrumhalf] Connor Murray visited our club back in the day. So I ended up playing in the same club as him and he visited our team a couple of times and that was always great.”
Ventesei said: “Some of my best memories were playing at that age and my advice would just be to enjoy it all and the achievements will come.”
Cameron Davey, coach of the U11 rugby team at Nederberg Primary said: “This is the chance for our learners to see and work with some of the players who they’ll normally only see on TV.
“So to be able to be in touching distance from somebody like that is quite exciting for them.”
Following the rugby drills, the players spent time interacting with the young players and signing autographs on balls, jerseys and caps.
The cross-hemisphere element is central to the URC’s vision, with players embracing different cultures while sharing a common passion.
Photos: URC Communities United/Khulani Media
The post Glasgow inspire kids at URC’s Paarl outreach appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Spending time with starry-eyed youngsters from two Paarl primary schools this week brought back fond childhood memories for several Glasgow Warriors players.
The post Glasgow inspire kids at URC’s Paarl outreach appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
