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Toby takes his London Irish squad to Tadley Tigers!

Date: Tue 03 May 2011

Toby Booth and Mike Catt took the London Irish squad through their paces on Monday (2nd May) in a training session at Tadley RFC’s ground.

At the beginning of the season London Irish launched the London Irish Community Rugby Loyalty Scheme whereby local rugby clubs could win a visit from the London Irish first team squad by being the club that participated most throughout the season in London Irish’s matchday festivals and masterclasses, made the most match day ticket purchases and introduced the most season ticket holders.

Tadley battled against other London Irish Community Club partners from across Hampshire and Berkshire this season to become the first ever winners of the scheme. Over the season they collected the most loyalty points reaching a staggering 6,087.

To thank them for their tremendous support, the entire London Irish first team headed down to Tadley for a training session on bank holiday Monday. Toby Booth put the team through a grueling training session, before giving the Tadley Tigers members the opportunity to meet the players and to interact in a Q&A session and autograph signing.

This is the first time London Irish has undertaken an offsite public training session and was a fantastic opportunity for club members to get up close to the players and gain a unique insight into the first team training methods employed by a top Premiership side.

Commenting on the training session, London Irish head coach Toby Booth said: “It is always great to give something back to the community, grassroots rugby is our future and if today we have inspired players and coaches to further their careers, then that is fantastic.”

Tadley Tigers Chairman, Jon Barker said: “To have a Premiership club training on our first team pitch was a great event for the club. It was terrific to watch Toby take a training session, and our coaches will only benefit from the experience. The Q&A’s and signing sessions were thoroughly appreciated by all at Tadley and we are thankful to the Exiles for making the time to visit us.”