With his reading and writing being impacted, he began to struggle with his confidence in a classroom setting and was extremely reserved and shy.

Jake was put on our intervention to try and bring him out of his shell. Initially, he was reluctant to ask for help to spell or read during our Sports Leaders theory sessions. His cohort was also full of very energetic individuals who played rugby outside of school, however Jake has very limited experience with the sport. When Jake first started with us he did not understand the basic principles of rugby such as passing backwards. He would also often get overwhelmed by the other boys in the cohort and limited his involvement in drills and games.

However, with encouragement from Dallaglio RugbyWorks coaches, his skills progressed and he has become better and better each week. Jake has found a new confidence within himself and now understands the sport a lot better.

Jake now gives 100% to every drill and is always excited and willing to learn new things. The other boys in his cohort now respect him and have gone out of their way to ask Jake to join the school rugby team, in which he is excelling.

In our theory lessons Jake, is no longer nervous to ask for help in completing tasks. He has even volunteered to deliver warm ups to the whole cohort. It has been brilliant to see how building a trusting relationship with a young person can really give them the confidence to believe in their own ability.

Jake is now excelling in both the practical and theory aspects of our sessions and is on course to completing his Level 1 Sports Leaders Qualification. Jake came out of his shell and has developed a new found self-confidence. It’s like interacting with a completely different young person and it’s great to see how he is bonding with the rest of the cohort.

“It’s strange being on the other side of what RugbyWorks do, but it’s great to give back after how much they’ve done for me.”

Gabriel joined the RugbyWorks sessions when he started at Jo Richardson two years ago school after struggling to keep up academically with his peers at his previous school, which led to him losing confidence in himself.

“Going to Jo Richardson and being part of RugbyWorks has been one of the best decisions I could have made in my life. Over the years, I’ve received a lot of support from the teachers, they helped me with my grades and with my personal development and RugbyWorks has also helped me to develop my confidence in not just school, but also talking to people as well.”

The RugbyWorks mentors who visited Jo Richardson saw the determination in Gabriel and his willingness to challenge himself. Gabriel has never missed a session and even when injured, he wanted to be on the field with his classmates.

“Together with my mates, I’ve had the opportunity to work with great role models like Andrea, Fin and Dan, who have helped us massively with our development. We all love rugby and taking part to the sessions has kept me active and healthy. We played a lot of rugby together when I was a RugbyWorks participant, every session was fun and I learned a lot which I hope to take into my new job with them!”.

Alongside the rugby sessions on the field, the young people at Jo Richardson worked on improving life skills over the years. And so did Gabriel, who has never hidden that he wanted to improve his communication’s skills.

“I used to struggle when I had to talk in front of a group of people I didn’t know. Thanks to the work done with the Mentors, I’ve improved that skill. During our classroom lessons, I’ve also learnt how to create an effective CV and when I left school and I’ve been able to build it on my own.”

Now Gabriel is part of the RugbyWorks team and also working towards a future within sport and rugby having applied to a number of universities to study Sports Rehabilitation and has also sent his credentials off to Munster Rugby Club in Ireland to play there. We wish Gabriel the best of luck and hope he will bring his newfound expertise to a full time role at Dallaglio RugbyWorks in the future!