Behind the scenes with West Wales Raiders Manager Peter Tiffin

This week myself, Jon Ellis, Wayne Ponting and 5 young welsh rugby league players will be visiting the City of Hull Academy with the intention of impressing the Hull KR and Hull FC super league coaching staff, this visit comes about after a link up with Wales Rugby League and the West Wales Raiders.

Jon Ellis, WRL National Coaching and Performance Manager said: “We are delighted Super League academies remain open to taking players from Wales and this link with  City of Hull builds upon the previous work which has seen young Welsh talent go to St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Widnes Vikings and Warrington Wolves in recent years. We will to continue to work with all Super League clubs and certainly appreciate their support.

As I mentioned earlier, Jon Ellis will travel with two other members of staff from the Wales under 16s international team including head coach Wayne Ponting and myself.

Jon continued: “This trip is also being used to develop coaches in our junior pathway system and any knowledge gained will pass back through the system in Wales. We will also continue discussions around taking the Wales under 16s International team on a training camp in Hull over the summer period.”

Raiders owner Andrew Thorne commented, “we as a club want the best for our players and if this means them leaving the club to get super league academy game time or even a contract then that is a result for us and Wales rugby League, for the sport to grow in Wales particularly in the west, players should have every opportunity to play at the highest level, this in turn will bring skill and experience back to the region in both the short and long term”.  With these players being given this opportunity, it shows that the club is serious about our player’s development and that the pathways we are creating are working. It is evident that the goals and ambitions the club set out when we first started are now being achieved, considering we are a new club, we have established ourselves well and will continue to develop the growth of the sport in the region and not just within our club.

Even though I shall be travelling with the boys to Hull this week I would like to acknowledge them all in this week’s column- Harry, Dan, Morgan, Luke and Archie and wish them the best of luck.

Along with our trip to Hull this week, we also have a first team fixture away to Nottingham Outlaws, last season we lost to Nottingham in the semi-final playoff, we know it is going to be a difficult game as we travel to last year’s champions, but the boys are looking forward to getting back into the run of fixtures and returning to playing week in week out.

If you would like to find out the half time and full time score then why not visit our website and download our app, it’s all you will need to keep up with West Wales only dedicated Rugby League team.

Keep an eye out for next week’s column to see how the boys did in Hull and Nottingham.