Leicester Tigers are delighted to announce a Performance Partnership with Kenilworth RFC which sees the Warwickshire club join Lichfield RUFC as part of the women’s rugby pathway programme.
The partnership will focus on player development, providing exposure to top-level coaching and playing opportunities in The Championship North League 1, as well as resource sharing between coaches, analysts, strength and conditioning and medical staff.
Kenilworth have almost 50 registered women’s players within their programme, which includes a first and second team as well as two youth teams at Under 18 and Under 16 level.
The Performance Partnerships with Kenilworth and Lichfield, which are similar in nature to the partnership between the club’s men programme and Nottingham Rugby, are designed to provide wide-ranging, unique and high-performance experiences for players, coaches and staff to continue their development, while increasing participation and growing the women’s game.
Tigers faced Kenilworth twice in the Championship North 1 last season and, with a maiden season in Premiership Women's Rugby on the horizon, offering younger players who might not quite be at Premiership level immediately the opportunity to get consistent minutes on field at the next highest level of the women's game offers them the best chance at sustained development.
Discussing the partnership, Leicester Tigers Head of Women's Rugby Vicky Macqueen said: "I am thrilled to welcome Kenilworth as a key partner club. Our aim is to bring as many players as possible into the game we all love, whether that sees them progress to first team level in the Premiership or helping Kenilworth to continue the incredible progress they have made over the last few years both in their first team and at grassroots: the more people playing rugby consistently, the better."
"It's really exciting for three clubs in us, Kenilworth and Lichfield to now be working alongside one another a friendly, competitive and coachable pathway is one that will bring the best out of all three clubs to make sure everyone involved can reach their potential.
“There will be S&C support, coaching support, players coming down to help guest coach, the whole pathway will be so beneficial. I'm just can't wait for it to all get started.”
Speaking about the partnership, Head Coach of Kenilworth Women's Rugby Becky Lewis said: "For me the excitement is being able to take the talent that we have here and merge those with players already on the pathway, those who already have experience and a future within a Premiership set-up and being able to bring those two together to get the best out of both parties. The conversations we've had, the interactions we've had and the professionalism that's bringing so far to our pre-season, we can already see it filtering through to our players. As a grassroots club it's exciting for all of us to keep getting better and be at the highest possible level of the amateur game"
When asked how the wider club would benefit as a result of the partnership, Lewis added: "When I grew up playing rugby, there weren't a lot of female players at the top level you could look up to as the press wasn't really there for it, you only really had your fellow players. at your local club. Now, you have the likes of Amy Cokayne and they are absolute superstars in the game; the thought that this opens the door for someone like her to come down and do a session with our hookers would be unbelievable. Being able to bring down Ofure and work with the pack on scrummaging. There's a huge opportunity here."
"We as a club need to get to a position where we are actively growing players, not just finding them at 18/19 years old, so the agreement with Tigers that allows for a potential pathway to players from mini and juniors all the way through to the highest level is exactly where we want to be".
Finally, on the evolution of the women’s programme at Kenilworth, Lewis added: "So I actually joined Kenilworth when I felt my career was winding down to play some rugby and just enjoy running round. Unfortunately, we were horrendously successful each year and ended up getting promoted to Championship North 1! We had a terrific coach who was incredibly passionate about the game, Tim Burden and he really helped lay the groundwork; many of the first team players here have been here for years, they make up a strong core of the squad. But the key difference is the professionalism that we have moved into, from a group who just wanted to enjoy their rugby and get stuck in to one to one that is still enjoying themselves but has made a step up across the way they play."
