The Cambodian Federation of Rugby (CFR) kick-starts its newly formed National Rugby Academy with a first training session at Olympic Stadium at 5:30pm today. 

Created as an opportunity to expose players to a culture of excellence, the program aims to provide a positive, supportive environment that prepares emerging talent for their highest performance ability, according to CFR development officer Dan Wetherall.

The academy will initially be made up of 30 developing players aged between 17 and 22 and hailing from charity organisations around Phnom Penh including ASPECA and PSE.

The inaugural session will feature player assessments and the start of conditioning by Gerald Koch, a spec-ialist strength and conditioning coach at the United Nations.

Individual development and ball skills will also begin to be focused on, as well as team training for men’s and women’s rugby 7s and 15s sides.

Education in health and fitness, such as correct training methods and athlete recovery, and the nutritional benefits of a balanced diet will be taught, along with social development, team-building, match analysis and tactics.

Players will be vying for places in the Cambodian national U20 and U21 squads, which are slated to participate in a number of invitational tournaments next year, including the Asian Youth Games in Nanjing, China.

“With rugby 7s to be included at the next Olympic Games in Rio [in 2016] and the region hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2019 in Japan, there has been a real push to see strong development of junior players in Cambodia,” Wetherall told the Post yesterday.

Anyone interested in supporting the Academy program can contact the Federation by emailing [email protected]

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Riley at [email protected]