Ospreys players Lyndon Bateman, Ed Shervington and Conor McInerney this week attended Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council's Festival of Sport for children with disabilities...
The annual event, which is sponsored by Admiral Insurance, has been running all week long at Margam Park, providing more than 120 attendees with the opportunity to try out a wide variety of sporting activities, from rugby to canoeing through to climbing.
Dai Arthur, Ospreys Community Development Officer for Neath Port Talbot, attended the festival on Tuesday and Wednesday, hosting a series of sessions for eight separate groups, running though a range of basic skills including ball handling, tackling and kicking.
The trio of players joined him for two sessions on Wednesday afternoon, where they assisted with the drills, passing on valuable rugby tips to the participants.
Lyndon Bateman commented:
‘It’s great to get involved in events like this, to see the children having a fantastic time really does make it worthwhile. Many of them have never had the chance to play rugby before attending this festival, so to be able to help them discover the game for the first time is fantastic. Hopefully, some of these children will now go away from the festival and want to spend more time with a rugby ball in their hand in the future.”
Dai Arthur added:
“Over the course of two days more than 100 children have taken part in the rugby sessions I’ve hosted at Margam Park. There were young people with a wide range of special needs participating, but they have all thoroughly enjoyed playing an active part in the sessions, with some of them showing a real aptitude for the game and an interest in playing rugby regularly.
“The important thing about the festival this week is that we are encouraging people who would not normally get access to sport to try things out for themselves, and the more children we can get participating in rugby, or any other sport for that matter, the better.”