North Wales Crusaders’ Head of Academy, Jon Burgess, says that he’s ‘excited for the future’ of the club following a debut victory for our North Wales men’s development side last weekend.
Appointed following the EggChaser group’s acquisition of the club back in December, Burgess has been working with the new ownership to establish a pathway programme with the aim of producing homegrown talent in both the men’s and women’s game.
Speaking to the club website, Burgess said: “There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to develop a player pathway inline with the RFL’s guidance.
“Following on from our open trials held in April, we’ve had our men’s North Wales Development squad in training once a week at The Rock in Wrexham, and they took to the field for the first-time last weekend with a 41-28 victory over West Bank Bears in Widnes.
“I was really proud of all the lads, they’ve worked hard to get to that point and played some nice rugby when you consider that they only came together a month ago as a group – I’m really positive about their futures.
“They’ve got more fixtures planed for the year as well as some join training sessions with the first-team, so that’s currently one of the early successes from the work which we’re undertaking behind the scenes.
“It’s not all been focused on that side however, we’ve just announced open trials for our under 18’s with a similar announcement to follow at under 16’s in due course, and that will see us deliver a professional programme to those age groups to establish pathway teams at under 16, 18 and then open age, all with the aim of building towards producing our own talent.
“We’re in the very early stages, but everything is being done in the background for the owners to achieve their longer-term vision of creating a strong North Wales Crusaders across both the men’s and women’s game – I’m excited for the future.”
Trials are now open for our under 18’s with interested players asked to register by clicking HERE
You can support the next generation of North Wales Crusaders across both the men’s and women’s game by becoming and official development sponsor, for more information, please email commercial@nwcrusadersrl.com