Leicester Tigers’ global partner club Dendermonde made a special visit across the pond to Leicester as part of their mid-season tour.

The group – which was made up of under-14 to under-18 boys and girls – arrived on the Saturday to watch Leicester Tigers in action against Exeter Chiefs in the Gallagher Premiership joining more than 21,000 fans at Welford Road.

Hosted at Rugby School, the group then played in an exhibition fixture against local Nuneaton RFC teams on the Sunday as well as the Dendermonde’s under-14’s to under-16’s teams taking parting part in a local festival.

In the afternoon, Tigers hosted the group for a behind-the-scenes tour of Welford Road and Tigers hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau also joined the tour meeting the teams and posing for photos. 

Monday and Tuesday saw the group take part in a series of training sessions at Rugby School led by Tigers coaches. Focusing on forward play, position-specific drills, tempo and turnover of the ball, the group took part in eight sessions before lunch and dinner together. 

Dendermonde youngsters also took in the history of rugby, visiting the hall of fame in the town of Rugby before travelling back to Belgium. 

Dendermonde RFC play their first team games in Belgian Elite League and are the current champions alongside two league-and-cup doubles in 2011/12 and 2015/2016.

Find out more about each of our Global Partner Clubs at the link below.