Scarlets look to hub officers to help grow game in region

Rob Lloyd News

Scarlets are looking to employ four hub officers to help grow rugby participation across the region. 

The successful applicants will be based at Parc y Scarlets and look to develop the junior, youth, men’s and women’s game.

Scarlets General Manager of Rugby Jon Daniels said: “We’ve identified that there are certain areas underpinning the development pathway we need to put more energy and resource into, which was part of our plan and our strategy before Covid.

“Obviously, with Covid, all activity stopped, now we are in a position where we are able to pick those plans up again and take them forward and we are delighted to be able to do so in partnership with the Welsh Rugby Union in the form of these hub officer appointments.

“We already have 16 hub officers in the Scarlets region, most of those are attached to schools. The role of the hub officer is to promote rugby participation and provide opportunities for young people to start in the game and also stay in the game by connecting them with rugby clubs, for example, and starting them on the journey for a lifelong love of rugby.

“This is the first time we have taken on hub officers who will be based here at Parc y Scarlets and we will work closely with the Welsh Rugby Union’s regional team under David Arthur. The initial funding for the hub officer is for a 12-month period, but we hope to extend that into the long term.”

As part of the strategy, one of the roles will have a specific focus on growing the girls and women’s game.

Daniels added: “There are four roles and whilst every role will have generic responsibilities towards participation and club development, we also have key priorities that they will be tackling and one of those is that we really want to put some focus on women’s and girls rugby.

“We have spent a lot of time liaising with key stakeholders including our Scarlets regional ladies head coach Daryl Morgan and we are looking at developing a women’s rugby strategy and a high-performance programme in the region. 

“We will be putting on a high-performance taster session for the under-18s girls in the coming weeks followed by a series of weekly development sessions focusing on skills, strength and conditioning and performance education leading up to when hopefully the girls Inter-Regional Championship kicks off in December.”

One player who started her rugby journey at the Scarlets is Wales international Jasmine Joyce, a double Olympian who starred for Team GB in the recent Tokyo Games. Jaz, along with fellow internationals Hannah Jones and Ffion Lewis, recently helped out with a girls training camp in Carmarthen.

“We have been very fortunate that Jaz and what she achieved in her second Olympics has been a fantastic inspiration to us all,” added Daniels.

“Jaz came in last week, spent the morning here and we were able to outline to her some of our ambitions for the future and she was delighted and fully on board. Clearly Jaz is still in the middle of her own professional rugby aspirations which is brilliant to see and she is an inspiration for all women and girls in the region. Hopefully she will be able to lend us some support and I know she is keen to do that because she is a fantastic role model for young people in our region.”

The deadline for applications for the hub officer roles is September 6. You find full details here