Future Rugby League stars in attendance at the RFL’s first Player and Coach Education Festival (PaCE)

Hundreds of Super League stars of the future attended Leeds Beckett University at the weekend for the RFL’s first Player and Coach Education Festival (PaCE), focusing on their future development as professional sportsmen.

All 12 Elite Academies were in attendance at the Festival, as well as pathway staff from all of the clubs - coaches, performance, medical and wellbeing - to take part in workshops and education sessions covering a wide range of subjects.

Paul Anderson, the former Great Britain prop and Huddersfield Giants coach who is now Head of England’s Male Pathways, said:

“I’d like to thank and congratulate everyone involved in what was a very enjoyable and productive weekend, and thank the clubs for their ongoing buy-in and support.

“I believe we’re the first sport to have brought so many players from different clubs together at this age group for sessions on such a wide range of topics – and I’m especially grateful to Cameron Owen, the Male Pathways Performance lead, for pulling it all together.

“It also allowed us to do the RFL national battery of physical profiling for the whole of this age group, which will prove invaluable to the sport – and I hope the players and coaches will view the weekend as similarly beneficial, as their careers develop inside and outside the sport.

“The players already benefit from so much knowledge at their clubs, and it was great for us to have the likes of Chev Walker, John Bastian, Rhys Lovegrove and Francis Cummins in attendance, as well as Bob Beswick and Keith Senior from Rugby League Cares, to share their vast experience with the lads.

“We were also joined by a group of up and coming match officials who also will greatly benefit from being around players that hopefully have careers on a similar path to themselves - I must congratulate Phil Bentham and Tom Grant for seeing the advantages of such a connection.”

Topics covered included nutrition, with the players given access to an app developed by Leeds Beckett University as part of their support of the England Men’s Pathway, showing them how to eat like an England player.

The latest developments in medical knowledge around brain health and concussion were covered, with another session from UK Anti-Doping, and a focus on the psychology of being a professional athlete.