Myerscough rugby strengthen links with Sale Sharks

The College has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the club for a number of years, but a restructure of the Sharks’ Academy set-up will now see Myerscough become their official site in the North. The aim of the partnership is for the club to provide coaching excellence and provide educational support throughout the students’ pathway. The partnership allows players to continue to train and play in the North West for a trusted partner institution that can be easily monitored.

Myerscough College will share the delivery and administration of programmes in the Northern area of the region, including current programmes through all stages of the Academy pathways. Sale Sharks will also support Myerscough in the delivery of a holistic rugby programme to students aged 16-18, who have the opportunity to play in the RFU AASE League, a competition that provides a good standard of rugby and affords the opportunity to assess and monitor academic and rugby development of all the young players involved, whilst completing a Level 3 sport course which allows progression to many university courses, including Myerscough’s foundation degree study programme in Rugby Coaching.

Sale Sharks Academy Coach, Warren Spragg, explains more about the partnership will work: ‘’The updated agreement means that Myerscough is now the Northern Academy site for the Sale Sharks regional Academy; an area which encompasses all of Cheshire and Lancashire.

‘’The aim of expanding the Academy to include a second site is to provide a better service and increase opportunities for players in all areas of the region, and make Academy training as accessibly as possible for players and parents, regardless of where they live in the North West.

‘’Our current block of under-18 training is a great example of how the Academy will progress in the coming seasons, where players will attend their scheduled sessions at the site they can access most conveniently. We run the same session at Myerscough and Carrington, with rugby coaches, physio and S&C coaches at both sites. This has increased the number of players who can access training, allows us to have more contact with our players, and importantly helps to keep busy parents off the motorways.

‘’As part of the new agreement, Myerscough has recently hosted the Sale Sharks under-15s Developing Player Programme (DPP) festival, an internal Sharks under 16s fixture, as well as weekly under-18 Academy training sessions. The Sharks will also continue to support the AASE programme and hope that Myerscough continue to provide the best post-16 educational option for students who choose to follow a vocational pathway.’’

Brendan Thomas, Academy Manager, said: "The new educational partnerships are a very significant development for the Academy. We want to provide coaching excellence, the best educational & holistic support throughout our pathways and beyond. We can now offer this for our players in the Academy & all here in the North West."