Imagine the prospect of a rugby training session with a coach who is feared by players for his army style drills and envied by other coaches for the results he yields from his team. Guinness Club Together, a grassroots rugby initiative, gave one lucky club the chance to be put through their paces in a unique training session, tailored specifically for the club, by the Wales Defence Coach Shaun Edwards.

Shaun gave up his only day off this year, in his busy schedule training the Welsh National Squad and the Wasps Guinness Premiership team, to head to Nottingham Casuals RFC, currently 5^th in Midlands 4 (East – North), for a once in a lifetime training session.

Oli Mott, winner of the Guinness Club Together competition, claimed he’d never seen so many players turn up for mid-week training and with such excitement and enthusiasm – they were even all on time! Shaun lived up to his trade-mark terrifying approach and took no pity on the Nottingham Casuals Team, undertaking a series of training drills and practices, which would have put a professional player through their paces. Shaun showed his true passion for the development of rugby by spending time with the club coaches as well as with the players. Judging by all the exhausted faces at the end I think it’s safe to say they had never experienced anything like it.

Despite Shaun’s gruelling schedule, he found time to share a pint of ‘the black stuff’ with the team after the training session, along with sharing some amusing anecdotes of life off the pitch in the professional game. The hard work and sweat truly paid off as the Nottingham Casuals won their next match 81-0! Shaun Edwards obviously left a lasting impression and turned out to be not so intimidating as originally thought.

To round up the 2008-9 rugby season Guinness Club Together is offering one member club the chance to play on the hallowed turf at Twickenham on the day of the Guinness Premiership Final. To enter visit www.guinness-clubtogether.com.

By Georgina Taylor on March 25th, 2009

Tags: Alcohol, Event management service, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby, community, grass roots sport