With just over two weeks until the kick off of the 2019 editions of the PSA Rugby Academy Tignes (Sat 6th-Sat 27th July) and PSA Rugby Academy Roscrea (Sun 7th-Fri 12th July), we’re delighted to share the final line up of top class coaches leading our high performance programmes across our French and Irish venues in July.
The PSA Rugby Academy Tignes , at 2,100m altitude in the French Alps, is our showcase high performance Academy venue, with this year’s edition set to welcome another diverse and talented group of 140 ambitious 10-17 year old players booked in from 12 different countries across Europe, the Middle East & Asia. Along with our partners STATSports, Shadowman Sports, Shadowball, STC Teamwear, Titan Wellness and UCPA Tignes, we’ve worked hard to continue to build up our unique best-in-class programme to ensure the best possible development experience for the players rebooking or booking for the first time. The 2019 Tignes programme will be led by the PSA Academies Directors ex-French RWC head coach Philippe Saint-Andre and ex-Leicester Tigers & Munster star Johne Murphy. An exciting new addition for 2019 will be Simon Sinclair, former Head of the Northampton Saints Academy, who will bring a new, valuable perspective from one of English rugby’s top U20s Academies. We also welcome back from the 2018 team the former AS Montferrand head coach François Anne and Swiss U18s head coach Jonathan Torossian, plus our Head of S&C and Camp Operations Jake Fitsimmons. This world class line up will be capably assisted by an exciting new group of Academy Interns including Rugby Intern Heather Carter and S&C Intern Tom Byrne (2016 Tignes graduate, working weeks 2 & 3 in 2019), plus the UCPA programme staff that will lead the evening activities in the Tignes Val Claret centre. For a detailed profile Q&A for the PSA Rugby Academy head coaches, click their name above or visit the PSA Rugby Academy Tignes page here.
Our first Irish Rugby Academy of the Summer launches in Roscrea on Sunday 6th July and with nearly 100 players attending from 22 clubs, across Leinster, Munster & Connacht, plus France, Italy & even Australia, it is set to be a special experience for all involved. Taking place in the historic setting of the Cistercian College venue, the programme sees a very strong coaching team signed up to deliver a fantastic rugby and personal development to the Minis (U11s & U12s), Intermediate (U13s-U16s) and Advanced (U17s & U18s) players booked on for the 3 to 5 days. Heading the Coaching team is PSA Academies’s Johan Taylor, who has been instrumental in developing the philosophy and training modules involved. Assisting Johan will the a highly experienced, expert team including Rugby World Cup winner & Garryowen FC Academy coach BJ Botha, current AIL player & Munster SCT coach Ben Swindlehurst and CCR SCT coach Alan Tynan. This front line team will be supported on the coaching side by ex-Irish U20 hooker Cathal Duff plus a strong intern team that includes ex-CCR past pupil Tom Byrne as S&C lead and Josh Gilmartin as Rugby Intern. Finally, the overall programme operation in Roscrea and all the Irish Academies is set to be led by Camp Manager Rachel Byrne, who will be capably assisted by our well qualified camp staff. We’re excited to have just announced fantastic new partners for our ‘Healthy Academy Shop’ in the form of Irish Biltong, VITHIT and Kinetica with all three brands to be prominently featured in the Sports Nutrition module delivered by Jonny Holland from our programme partners Titan Wellness at each Irish Rugby Academy. We’re also proud to once again be supporting the ‘Tackle Your Feelings‘ initiative backed by Rugby Players Ireland & Zurich Insurance, with the logo appearing on all our Academy Player kit across all four Irish Academy venues. The key messages and themes of the campaign will also be included in our Mental Wellness module within the high performance programme at camp.
July’s schedule is completed by our first Munster-based High Performance Rugby Academy in Limerick, when Villiers School is set to welcome more than 50 players from 22 players across Munster & Connacht, plus France, Spain, the US & Singapore. We’re delighted to have added the 6 Nations Grand Slam & Heineken Cup winning experience of Denis Leamy to the Limerick coaching roster, where he will join Johan Taylor, BJ Botha, Ben Swindlehurst and Limerick-based Cistercian College SCT skills coach Tyrone Elliot. With such a quality coaching team backed up by a highly experienced, dynamic intern and camp staff group, the 3 and 5 day programmes planned for the Limerick City venue can be expected to deliver significant developmental benefits for the players booked in to date.
There are a limited amount of places still available for all three venues so if you’re interested, please book via the links below ASAP;
TIGNES (Week 1 06-13 July & Week 2 13-20 July)
If you have any queries on our programmes or any aspect of the PSA Academies offering. please send us a message via our Contact Us page, email sales@psaacademies.com or call 1800 938772 (if in Ireland) or +44 (0) 1449 742707 (in the UK or internationally).
