Rugby League team to spread healthy message
A world champion rugby team will be winging its way to Ireland this week to encourage young people to hit the playing fields.
The Bradford Bulls, a UK rugby league team, will be meeting the Meath GAA team, rugby squads and schools to show them the skills of the game and how it can help the community.
A squad of 33-people, including the full-team, five coaching members and the community development team, will meet schoolchildren and players on their trip.
Community Development Manager Nigel O’Flaherty-Johnston said they would be meeting seven schools in Dublin’s Clondalkin, Tallaght, Corduff and Leixlip areas to promote Rugby League and promote a healthy lifestyle for young adults.
The squad, which will also be holding an open-training session in University College Dublin in Bellfield during its three-day trip, will be encouraging people to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables a day and breakfast.
“There is a strong obesity problem in the UK , we’ve all got to club together to get things out there and encourage them,” the development manager said.
The team will be speaking about the success of its programme to encourage sports throughout the community and its Official Bulls Dance Team, the Bullettes, will also be giving a class.
The development manager, who is a huge gaelic football fan, said: “They can teach us things and we can teach them, we are a full-time professional team and we can help with programmes to teach about fitness.
“The games are similar collision sports with a lot of twisting and turning, we hope to establish a mutual partnership that will go on for a long time to come.”
Rugby Union has a strong presence in Ireland, but League is only beginning to take-off here, although it is already long established in the UK.
Assistant coach Steve McNamara said the squad will be encouraging children to get involved in sport.
“We’ll put some sessions on for schools over normal preparation skills,” Mr McNamara said.
“Actually we are half way through the season so we have to do training. We’ll be having a rehabilitation day on Monday, to look after players injuries and stiffness and video work.”
The Bulls community development team will be in Ireland for a week and its programme of introducing sport into the Bradford Community has received huge recognition since it began in 1995.
“Bulls have been leaders in that department since the concept of superleague came up in 1996,” Mr McNamara said.
“We won lots of awards for the ways we’ve developed community, Bradford is a multi-cultural city and it went a long way to develop relations in the city.”
The team will be showing how players can be used as positive role models and to create community links with other partners such as the Gardai.
“It is not costing a lot of money as we work as partners with other organisations like the police. It is good for us and good for them,” the development manager said.
The players will be meeting with the Meath GAA team and manager Sean Boylan to exchange training tips and talk about community work.
The coaching staff will also do a training session on defence drills with the under-18 players in the Dublin Wanderers Rugby Union Football Club.
The squad will be meeting with the British Ambassador, Stewart Eldon, the day after they arrive on Tuesday night, before they attend a fundraising dinner for the Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation.
Jonathan Irwin, the founder of the charity which helps families with young children with severe developmental problems, said: “They feel the work Jack and Jill does is good and in the Irish campaign for the first time the whole squad is over.
“What they are doing is that on Tuesday evening, the 22, they are holding a dinner for 170 people in the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin, it is a subscription and the profits go to Jack and Jill.
“They ran a competition in the national newspapers here for designing their away jersey, and they would sell around 10,000 of those, and they will give us £1 for every shirt sold, which is great.”
