The University of New England’s tilt at the inaugural National University Sevens Series will kick up a notch next month.
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The registration system for the UNE Lions went live this week on the SportUNE website with a trial date set down for Sunday 12 March.
“Since UNE has been announced as one of the National University Sevens Series teams, we have been inundated with enquiries about the team from all over Northern NSW,” UNE Lion’s Head Coach Tom Bower said.
The only regional university in the competition and one of only two sides based out of NSW, the Lions will set up three training centres in Northern NSW, with UNE as the head centre and two regional centres in the Mid North Coast and Central North regions.
“Due to the size of Northern NSW, we will look to provide satellite centres in each region so that we can identify and develop players right across Northern New South Wales,” Bower said.
“The girls selected at the UNE Lions trial day will be placed into their closest satellite centre to train with their local NSW rugby development staff and a community coach.”
“Throughout the year these athletes will travel up to Armidale to attend development and match play weekends against each other.”
“At the start of June a final squad of approximately 20 players from our wider training squad will make up the 2017 UNE Lions that will contest the National Series.”
The program is open to both university and community members with athletes of all levels of rugby experience invited to trial.
Athletes that are new to rugby sevens will be given an induction in rugby technique.
“At the trial and throughout the program our UNE Exercise Science staff will be testing the athletes and relaying this information to the national strength and conditioning staff,” Bower said.
“The girls are very fortunate to have such professional support assisting with their development in this program.”
“We are really looking for our best athletes in the region, not just our best rugby players.”
He and his fellow coaching staff have just returned from the Australian Sevens training camp in Narrabeen where they spent two days training with the National team and coaching staff.
“It was an amazing experience for us and you can see why they are Gold Medallists,” Bower said.
“The amount of time and effort they put in to be the best is impressive. We have taken a lot from the two days training with the Australian squad and will implement it into the UNE Lions program.”
To register for the UNE Lions trial day, visit www.sportune.com.au and click on the UNE Lions page.
