Cape Town gets Academy

Theo Kleynhans, the cheerful former schoolmaster who runs schools rugby in the Western Province has announced the launch of the new WP Rugby Academy (WPRA) in Cape Town. He has written to school principals and coaches in the Western Province about this new venture.

As most of you would know, since the WP Rugby Institute (WPRI) started in 2007,  our programme has produced some of South Africa's best professional rugby players that have gone on to represent Western Province, the Stormers and the Springboks.  Our focus from the start has been to produce players who are ready to take the step up to the professional level, something we have achieved without any doubt. The WP 2012 Currie Cup winning team had more than half of the side graduates from the WPRI, of whom most were still Under-21 at the time of winning.

Our key to producing the best young players to sustain the success of the senior teams, is our specialised, holistic approach to each individual player, using a team of highly experienced coaches, managers and sports science staff who develop and manage the players in a High Performance environment that leads the way in player and athlete development.

To ensure that Western Province can maintain this success and continue to build our pool of talented players for the professional game, we have set up the Western Province Rugby Academy (WPRA), essentially to increase our player talent base, but also to ensure that we provide a much needed additional platform for the many talented players who need and want a chance to become professional rugby players. The WPRA is an entirely separate High Performance facility based at the Athlete Development Centre (ADC), in Tokai, Cape Town and will now provide a platform that helps ensure that players who have perhaps slipped through the net of the initial recruitment campaign, can still be part of the Professional Rugby system employed at Western Province Rugby and at the Institute.

The Academy which is based at he foothills of the Tokai mountain range, is a haven for outdoor training and team building. This new environment will not only provide a High Performance environment employing the same programme as the WPRI, but will also ensure that the WPRI and WPRA can now work across the two facilities and integrate both environments as far as the rugby and conditioning programs are concerned.

The WPRI in Stellenbosch can cater for a maximum of 40 players and the positions are filled at an early stage. The WPRA now enables us to include an additional 40 to 50 players to capture even more talented rugby players that leave school and who would like to give themselves a chance of pursuing a career in rugby but at the same time also study an Academic or Sports related course which is integrated into the rugby programme for those that choose this option.

Applications are now open for the WPRA 2014 in-take and therefore if you feel that some of your boys are capable of stepping up and have the desire to move into the professional ranks, we would be only to pleased to come and present the WPRA at your school.

You can visit the WPRA website at www.wprugbyacademy.com for further information and entry requirements.

FOR ANY OTHER QUERIES OR FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Keith Milner

Cell: +27 (0) 82 452 0085

Office: +27 (0) 21 712 1559

Fax: +27 (0) 86 275 4907

Address:  Athlete Development Centre, Academic Block, Porter Estate, Tokai Rd, Tokai, 7945, Cape Town, RSA

e-mail: [email protected]