Future CA Brumbies on show at the AIS

Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Brumbies Media Unit

Brumbies Rugby is on the look-out for the Super 14 Champions of the future as part of the fifth annual three-day Brumbies Talent Development Camp launched today at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

65 successful applicants, between 15 and 17 years old, were invited to attend with a number of participants travelling from as far as South Australia, Victoria and Country NSW to take part.

The camp, launched by CA Brumbies assistant coach Nick Scrivener this morning, includes a range of player testing and a series of games and exercises to best identify players most suitable for future rugby talent programs.

The program, now into its fifth year, has already identified one member of the current CA Brumbies squad with rookie John Ulugia attending the inaugural camp in 2003.

Prop Nic Henderson, who will pack down alongside Ulugia in the CA Brumbies’ first trial match against the Waratahs on Saturday, says the camp is an excellent way to introduce talented young players to the Brumbies Rugby program.

“This is an excellent opportunity for these guys to learn and fine tune skills, and for Brumbies Rugby to identify some of our players of the future,” he said.

“It’s also great for these guys to be able to use the AIS. The Wallabies held a rugby camp out here at the beginning of the month and it was a good chance to be able to focus solely on your rugby as well as have access to some of the best facilities in the world. Hopefully, this camp will give these guys a taste of what a professional rugby program is about and will help focus their rugby goals for the future.”

Henderson joined a number of his CA Brumbies team mates including Alister Campbell, Mark Chisholm, Julian Huxley, Guy Shepherdson and George Smith in helping the participants with some catch-pass and decision making drills at the camp.

Brumbies Rugby Coach Education Manager and camp organiser Matt Kaye says the program is a valuable recruitment tool.

“We need to be constantly reinvesting in our future and developing the next George Gregans or Steve Larkhams,” he said. “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response we’ve had to these camps and it’s been a tough process to whittle down more than 120 nominations to a squad of 65. The feedback from previous camps has been excellent, the coaches enjoy taking part and with some participants returning for their second or third camp, I think the players get a lot out of it as well.”

The camp, run by Brumbies Academy staff and Brumbies Rugby development officers from the Far South Coast, Southern Inland and Monaro, runs until Friday.