Telusa Veainu and Jordan Ololwofela are the special guests on the BT Rugby Tonight Show this evening (Wednesday, February 20).
The duo joined presenters Martin Bayfield and Ben Kay at Newark Rugby Club, which had been selected to host the special edition episode.
Olowofela came through the ranks as a youngster at Newark before joining the Tigers academy. The 20-year-old has since gone on to make 17 appearances in all competitions this season.
“There are a lot of memories here for me,” Jordan say.
Growing up, this was my rugby club so all throughout my primary school and secondary school years I’d be playing weekend games here.
“Leicester Tigers hosted rugby camps here and I went to quite a few – I even got five stars on the certificate one year! If I’m not playing, I do come down here – my parents live a few miles from the ground - so if I’ve got any free time, I’ll come and watch the first-team play.”
Jordan and Telusa joined Newark youngsters to take part in the ‘Demo’ run-through as well as the popular ‘Smash-O-Meter’ feature, before sitting down with Kay and Bayfield in the clubhouse to talk rugby.
Jordan added: “Having BT Sport here is massive. There are some great players from here, like Dusty Hare, and you can see all of his shirts around here, and it’s quite a small town so getting BT down to help publicise the club is massive.”
John Coles, Newark Rugby Club president, has been involved with the club since 1969 and was also interviewed by the BT presenters talking about the growth of the local club in its centenary year.
He said: “We’ve just finished construction of our new £1.5 million clubhouse and it’s incredible to see how far the club has come. Over the years, we’ve helped produce a fair number of Tigers, including Dusty Hare and John Wells as well as Jordan and Joe Heyes, so we’ve always had a close relationship with Leicester.
“I was born in Kettering and we moved to Peterborough, I went to boarding school at York and became embedded in rugby. I’ve always been a Tigers fan, my father and brother used to go to Welford Road – the Barbarians games always being a highlight.”
“For me the biggest success is the growth of mini’s and junior rugby, on the Sunday just gone, I came down and we had 500 kids here playing rugby which is what it’s all about."
You can watch the episode on BT Sport 1 at 7.00pm (Wednesday, February 20).
You can also find out more about Leicester Tigers Rugby Camps at local rugby clubs across the UK. Hit the link below to find out when Tigers are coming to a club near you.
