Date: Thu 07 Mar 2013
London Irish Rugby Club received the keys to Hazelwood Golf Course on March 1st and immediately began work on the redevelopment that will see it turned into a state of the art training facility and the new headquarters of London Irish Rugby Club.
The first phase of the redevelopment is now into a second week and the club envisages the completion of this project to be the summer of 2014.
When complete, the site, that is half a mile from the current training ground, will become the new home of both London Irish Professional and Amateur clubs, members of the Amateur club’s junior section and the London Irish EPDG and Academy programmes. The training ground will house five full size pitches, one of which will be 3G, and 12 junior pitches.
London Irish Chief Executive Andy Martin said: "This is an exciting time for the club. Hazelwood is a real statement of our intent to move London Irish forward. We are seeking to deliver an elite training facility of which everyone can be proud. It is what we have been working towards for quite some time and not only secures the future of our organisation, but also enables us to leave a lasting legacy to future members of the wider London Irish family. It will be a centre of excellence for our members, supporters, partners, staff and community to use and enjoy.”
The Club’s Director of Rugby, Brian Smith added: “Everyone wants to come and work in nice places and rugby players are no different. We will have a shiny new training base with some of the best facilities in the country. From an existing player and recruitment point of view; you need to have the best facilities to retain and entice the best players in the game to our club and when Hazelwood is finished we will certainly have that.”
Winger, Tospy Ojo, who has been at London Irish since 2003, is relishing the opportunity of training at the new elite centre. He said: “I have enjoyed coming to work at Sunbury but as a squad we are excited to be moving across to Hazelwood. When complete we can all look forward to having a top professional set-up to work in.”
