Tignes Rugby Academy Week 2, Days 5 & 6 covered the last big programme phase, with Defence and Tournament Tag play the key focuses.
Friday began back on the Cantona Pitch in Tignes Le Claret in the morning. The session involved a position specific skills clinic incorporating key forward (line out throwing and jumping) and backs (kicking) elements.
The second half of the morning switched to Tignespace for speed and agility work with coach Cathal.
After lunch in UCPA, the players were back on the grass pitch and extension for the Shadowman Sports Tackle Clinic. This featured coach Johan’s 6 S’s of Tackling. With three sessions under their belts, the players were brought back to the UCPA for a late afternoon recovery siesta.
The evening classroom session covered a detailed breakdown of the key aspects of their skills and physical assessment content in the end of camp player reports. These reports will give players and parents a clear view of the player’s performance at camp. In development terms, benchmarking versus peer group and work on’s for the future are important to continue the journey to maximising potential.
The activity for Friday night was the big supervised Disco with the wider UCPA group, something that has become a welcome addition to the 2017 Tignes experience!
Saturday is the last full day of the programme and is greeted with mixed feelings by the group. Positively as the chance to implement skills and play in a competitive tag tournament. Negatively as the last chance to enjoy Tignes and the company of their new friends before they head home.
The tag tournament is always a popular activity. This week was no different. It saw 40 players show some excellent play, support lines and decision making, despite the lung bursting effort of sprinting at 2,100M above sea level!
After lunch, the playing group joined the coaching team to run through the player review session in the UCPA Meeting Room. This is a great chance for the team to call out the great examples where players have displayed strong execution of the specific skills (across the core areas of Passing, Tackling & Rucking) developed through the programme.
The close of Saturday’s formalities is the Player Presentation & Coach Awards. This saw Philippe presenting every player with their Tignes Rugby Academy Week 2 certificates, recognising the best performers of the week.
Following the Presentation, the players who booked via UCPA departed. The rest of the group got a chance to enjoy free time in Tignes, watching the adult Beach Tag Tournament and having a final go on the lake activities.
The staff and players headed to bed on Saturday night, fully packed and prepped for their morning checkout and trips home. Their Tignes Rugby Academy Week 2 journey for 2017 may be complete but they’ll hopefully have a great reason to return in 2018!
