The O’Dowd men’s and women’s rugby teams played host to coaches from NEC Harlequins, of London, on January 20.
The Harlequins Rugby Club just celebrated its 150th birthday and is looking to build relationships with high school, college and club rugby teams throughout Northern California.
Gary Street, England’s 2014 Women’s World Cup winning coach and his staff ran a clinic at O’Dowd’s practice, focusing on skill building. Though the rainy weather has wreaked havoc on all the campus grass surfaces, and the teams had to train in the small gym, the players’ enthusiasm was not dampened.
Street commented, “What a keen and wonderful bunch of kids you have here.”
O’Dowd Director of Rugby Ray Lehner said the visit provided a great opportunity for him and his staff to observe Coach Street and his crew put the Dragons through their paces.
“Rugby is the contact sport the rest of the world plays, and exposing our athletes to other voices and methods is an asset to our program,” Lehner said.
The Harlequins featured their visit to O’Dowd on their travel blog.