Chiefs youth squad get World Cup lesson from Bank ambassador

29/09/2011

Exeter Chiefs Under 12s and Under 15 squads got a rugby lesson to savour this week when England World Cup hero and Clydesdale Bank ambassador Mike Catt dropped in at Sandy Park for a coaching session.

Catt, who is now on the coaching staff at London Irish, was in Devon in his role as a sporting ambassador to Clydesdale Bank, organised by David Bird, managing partner of Clydesdale Bank in the South West and a committee member of the local branch of the rugby charity, the Wooden Spoon Society.

David Bird said: “Mike is one of many sporting ambassadors for Clydesdale Bank and we arranged for him to open a special interactive learning facility for children with profound learning difficulties at Pathfield School in Barnstaple.  This is a fantastic project to which the Wooden Spoon donated £70,000.   The Devon branch has now invested in excess  of £1 million to help disadvantaged young people of Devon.   

 “I also coach the u12s at Exeter Chiefs and so we asked Mike to give the boys some tips from the top.   We didn’t quite persuade him to don a Chiefs shirt but he played a full part in the session and the boys   absolutely loved it.”

Mike Catt said: “It’s been a long time since I played against Exeter and that was at the County Ground in 2003.  The Chiefs have certainly come on a long way since then.”