By Erick Ochieng’
Sadili Oval has partnered with Mill Field School in the United Kingdom to promote rugby.
Mill Field School, a top UK sports school on Monday flew in two professional coaches and veteran rugby players to help Sadili Oval realise popularise rugby.
The coaches are Paul Nicholas Reed and Graeme Maw who are carrying out an intense three-day rugby training camp with 67 players, in the under-13 and under-19 boys and girls’ categories.
The two former UK internationals said they hope to help Sadili establish the first rugby school in Kenya.
The players, both elites and rookies, are being taken through ball control, handling and runs among other rugby basics.
The training will also see Sadili establish an annual exchange programme with Mill Field School to enable players from the two institutions gain exposure from next year.
The players said they are looking forward to interact with the best and develop their skills through the programme.
“Mill Field will help us develop the technical capacity and in the organisation of the school we now establishing,” Sadili Oval Director, Liz Odera, told Fever Pitch.
“ Sadili Oval’s mission is to take rugby to the next level with the same intensity and passion that it has carried on tennis. Soon, big rugby names will be flocking in Kenya to train and learn with the best at our centre,” Odera added while thanking Virgin Atlantic Airline, Carnivore Restaurant (Tamarind branch), Sarova Stanley Group, PTR and Karen Country Club for sponsoring the programme.
Odera hopes to see players nurtured at Sadili Oval identified and signed by the Kenya Cup teams in future. She said the players will be dominant in the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Associations games from next year the same way her tennis players have been.
Reed is also an economics, business and accounting teacher. In his vast rugby career Reed played for Doncaster, Sheffield, Nottigham, Saracens, Richmond and Cambridge University.
