Pre-season school rugby training tour in Manchester

In August 2011, Brighton College sent 65 boys from 3 age groups for a 6 day training camp in Manchester. They had access to outstanding rugby facilities, pool and gym, allowing them to prepare all of their teams for the season to follow in a short space of time.



Tours 4 Sport can organise coach travel as part of our packages, but Brighton College chose to use their school minibuses to bring their students up to Manchester. Our customer service was called into action early when one school staff member - who shall remain nameless - had a breakdown. Our staff organised a local garage to fix the bus during the stay, minimising any disruption.

The students arrived during the late afternoon, where they were fed at their host rugby club before making the short journey to watch Sale Sharks' pre-season fixture against Edinburgh, an entertaining game and good start to the trip for the students.

From here we all headed back to the hotel which was to be our tour base for the next week. We use a perfect hotel in South Manchester for our training camps. There is free wi-fi throughout, satellite TV in all the rooms, a good bar and quality restaurant which is used to preparing menus for professional sports groups. The leisure facilities make it perfect for sports camps: there are two gyms, swimming pool, spinning studio, sauna and spa area, all free for hotel residents. We also provided a squash court free of charge each evening for students or staff to relax. Outside the hotel, there is a grass sports pitch; most of our serious training was done off-site, but this was a useful site for times when not as much space was required. It was the site of the opening session, the dreaded fitness tests! Given the large size of the group, we also included free use of a meeting room throughout the stay, which proved useful for team meetings, DVD nights and a couple of private meals when the restaurant was busy.

The majority of the training took place at Burnage rugby club available exclusively to Tours 4 Sport groups, just 10 minutes' drive from the hotel. The club is a perfect base for rugby training camps, as it has everything you need for the rugby training plus opportunities to relax both indoors and outdoors. The rugby training took place across the two full-size grass pitches and the full size, rugby specific 3G pitch. The teams had free use of the club's contact equipment and Predator scrummaging machine. We generally did two sessions a day, with free time in between. We had organised hot lunches to be served in the clubhouse which also boasts free wifi, Sky TV and a covered patio area overlooking all 3 pitches. There is also a 9 hole pitch and put golf course at the club, which the staff and students enjoyed in their down-time. The club even has a canoeing school, where we can organise half day guided excursions down a canoeable stretch of the River Mersey which runs alongside the club.

The hotel gym was great for cardio work, machine weights and most importantly some recuperation pool work in the evenings, but Brighton also wanted to do a couple of specific training sessions, particularly for their senior boys. So we organised access to a weights gym with a huge range of dumbbells and full olympic weights and bars. We took the 10 minute drive from the rugby club three times during the week, twice for the senior boys and once for the U16 and U15 squads who were given an introduction to olympic lifting and a circuit training class. The rugby lads really enjoyed the atmosphere in the Rocky-style gym, and were certainly worked hard by their coaches!

Having achieved everything they set out to do, the teams finished off with an early fitness session on their final morning before heading back on the road to Brighton. In the 6 day stay they managed 9 pitch based sessions, 3 weights sessions, plus daily rehab, cardio and team meetings back at the hotel. Director of rugby Nick Buoy was delighted with the results: "as ever, Tours4 provided high quality service and facilites. Their understanding of the game and our training requirements makes it easy for us to focus on the coaching, as we know everything else will be in place as required. The hotel, rugby club and gym were all fantastic, thanks once again."

Tours 4 Sport would be happy to organise your school's next pre-season training camp. We offer training camp venues across the UK and in Europe which will allow you to prepare your teams thoroughly in a safe, enjoyable environment. Email us on info@tours4.com or call 0800 043 3887 to get your side booked in today.