Renegades rugby club have crowned a great season on the field with a major coup off it ? hiring Welsh Grand Slam winning coach Mike Ruddock as the keynote speaker for their annual dinner.

Ruddock led the resurgent Welsh team to their first Grand Slam in nearly 30 years and Renegades skipper Mike Williams is delighted to have brought in such a high profile speaker for their event.

"We are very pleased to have such a high calibre coach and true rugby man on board for the dinner," said Williams, whose side won the league and the cup this season.

"It is a bit of a coup for us ? he is a very big name and is in demand at the moment. This isn't just good for our club but good for the profile of Bermuda in the rugby world as well.

"We are trying to bring back the days of the Easter Classic where big names were always coming here. The Classic now brings a lot of the older, former players here but we want to see more of the current players and managers coming here like they used to do.

"It is good for rugby on the Island to have people like Mike coming in."

As well as speaking at the dinner and conducting a question and answer session afterwards, Ruddock, pictured below, is also likely to be holding a meeting with all the club coaches on the Island to try and pass on some of his extensive knowledge.

"We are extremely grateful to Mike for coming out," continued Williams.

"He has come up through the coaching ranks and knows his grassroots rugby and we are all looking forward to hearing him speak and getting a chance to ask someone of his stature questions about the game at the very highest level."

After a first class playing career with Tredegar and Swansea and representative honours at Wales 'B' level in the back row. Ruddock's playing career was prematurely ended in 1985 as the result of an industrial accident.

He then started coaching his home-town club in Blaina and after progressing through coaching junior clubs in Ireland and Wales. He moved through to coaching Swansea from 1991 to 1997, winning the Heineken League in 1992 and 1994 and the Welsh Cup in 1995.

Also notably in 1992 Swansea beat Australia 21-6 in a famous day at St Helens.

He moved on to coaching Leinster in 1997 through to 2000 also coaching Ireland 'A' during his time in Eire.

He returned to Gwent in 2000 to coach Ebbw Vale. In 2003 after the structural re-organisation of the club structure in Wales to a regional format he naturally progressed to coach the newly formed regional team the Gwent Dragons until taking up the position of full-time Welsh Coach in 2003.

Ruddock's arrival is yet another boon for Bermuda rugby following on from English World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson's visit here last year when he staged a testimonial dinner during the World Rugby Classic last November.

Tickets for the Renegades dinner at the Whaler Inn at the Southampton Princess tomorrow are still available for $125 from WIlliams on mwilliamsias.bm or 505 8423.