Gym equipment donated to West Wales Raiders and Coleg y Cymoedd


Wales Rugby League have permanently loaned £10,000 of performance gym equipment to West Wales Raiders RLFC and Coleg y Cymoedd in support of improving performance levels.

The apparatus, which includes a huge array of Olympic standard equipment such as dumbbells, discs, bars, collars, power racks, benches, holding racks, spotting frames and large rubber jigsaw floor, will be based at their Stebonheath Park home in Llanelli.

This complements the world class equipment that has been available in North Wales since 2012 at the official WRL Performance Centre at Deeside Leisure Centre.

Raiders’ director Andrew Thorne said: “The club is really grateful for all the help and support that WRL continue to offer and it’s the things like this that make the working partnerships strong.

“The equipment is fantastic and the use of it will defiantly help create a better environment for the first team players. Coleg y Cymoedd and the Raiders academy will also benefit from this as it is vital that we give the young lads coming through the opportunity to be as physically fit as possible to help them establish themselves in the highest part of the game.

“From everyone at the Raiders we’d like to thank WRL for their continued support.”

Wales Rugby League CEO Paul Chambers said: “West Wales Raiders is a club that we believe in. They have high strategic value to what we wish to achieve as a governing body, and the gym equipment will help to develop a strong performance culture at the club. We bought the a few years ago for the AASE programme in South Wales, which brought through players such as Regan Grace who now stars for St Helens in Super League.

“WRL are providing the high performance equipment on a permanent loan to aid the development of the professional club and the development sides. We saw little need in the Raiders buying this from us as it would just be taking away valuable resource from the club that could be put into other matters. We want the club to succeed and whilst they found it challenging in their first season, I know they are learning extremely quickly and are now looking forward to the 2019 campaign.”