Our Saints Academy will depart on their tour of Australia this winter and they need your support!
This year’s tour will be the club’s eighth since 2004 and the three week long trip is an integral part of our performance programme here at the Saints.
Our Saints stars of the future are tested against the best overseas youngsters and over the years our Academy have played games against 10 different NRL opponents including the likes of Penrith, Parramatta, St George and Canterbury. In total 27 games have been played with Saints Academy winning 22 of them, scoring 640 points at an average of over 23 points a game.
A vital part of the tour is the connectivity with the community game and so far 30 different community clubs have been represented with a further five added for 2019.
Out of a total of 181 tourists, 48 Academy players have progressed to play Super League, from the likes of Paul Clough who was part of the inaugural 2004 tour to most recently Jack Welsby & Josh Simm in 2017.
The likes of current first team stars, Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Luke Thompson and Mark Percival all started their successful Saints careers on the tours and along with a total of 11 Saints, both past and present, have progressed to play international rugby.
Saints Heritage players Eric Chisnall (Hertiage No. 840), Tommy Marytn (1042) and Tommy Frodsham (1015) have been staff members on all previous tours, whilst current first team staff Matty Daniels (Head of Strength and Conditioning) and Nathan Mill (Head Physio) were members of the 2006 trip, alongside a very young Jonny Lomax – pictured.
Tommy Martyn said: “I have been on a number of the Saints’ tours of Australia and I have seen first hand how beneficial they are to our youngsters. Over the three week tour you see the boys develop into men and come back much stronger both physically and mentally.”
Our next tour squad will be coached by Academy Head Coach Derek Traynor, first team assistant coach Ian Talbot and our Women’s Head Coach Derek Hardman with the touring squad and fixtures to be announced shortly.
For the tours to take place the players and staff fund raise and these efforts are only successful because of the fantastic support we receive from the local community. Should anyone be willing to support the next Australia tour any donations would be gratefully received and we also have some spaces for small £100 sponsorships left in the tour brochure. You can donate to this year’s Academy Tour by contacting [email protected].