Virgin Media O2 Rugby Training Session

If you were offered a training session from three England rugby players during the six nations tournament, you would think somebody was making it up! But, this is exactly what happened to 15 pupils at Summerhill Academy, in St George.

A crack team of experts from Virgin Media and O2 descended on the school with the latest cutting edge hologram technology to make this happen. Ellis Genge (Bristol born and ex-John Cabot Academy pupil), Jack Knowle and Henry Slade from the England Rugby team then delivered a live real-time coaching session. This can only happen using the latest 5G technology. The players were beamed in from their hotel, giving instructions and pro tips to pupils, which were instantly shown live by hologram in the school hall.

There was also a live question and answer session with the players, who answered questions about how they train, what they eat to stay fit and healthy, and who their heroes were when growing up. The children were even interviewed by TV personality Radzi Chinyanganya as part of the event.

Bristol Sport supported the session in school, but England rugby provided England shirts, as well as rugby balls and cones for the session.

The players got pupils to carry out various drills and activities that included a pro-level warm-up, passing practice and movement fundamentals to develop their skills.

The whole of this amazing event was filmed by Virgin Media and O2 and the Academy will receive a copy of this film once it is edited.

Mr Barratt, Principal of Summerhill Academy said, “This was an amazing opportunity for the Summerhill Community. We’ve had a big push on our Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds initiative across the school, and for the children to have access to elite-level athletes as role models and heroes was very special. Equally impressive was the futuristic technology – there aren’t many schools that can say they hosted the first ever live 5G hologram training session with professional athletes in their school hall!”