More than 100 schoolchildren from four schools have become the latest beneficiaries of the Bermuda Rugby Football Union’s development initiatives.

Middle school students from Francis Patton, Warwick Academy, Saltus Grammar School and Somersfield Academy received coaching at the National Sports Centre on Tuesday. The session formed part of a pitch-up and play programme conducted by Jason Hendrie, the BRFU rugby operations director.

Hendrie, who also conducted a session with high school learners on Monday, expects more schools to come on board.

“It’s basically trying to encourage schools to just bring as many players as they can,” Hendrie told The Royal Gazette.

“Some schools in the past have maybe brought their strongest players or just their rugby players. We are trying to expose children as much as possible to rugby.

“We had about 25 high school students on Monday then on Tuesday we had 140 from four different schools.

“We’re hoping that more schools will buy into it. How it works is that there are competitive games but rather than these competitive games getting points for the team, the schools get points for every player that they bring.

“For example, Warwick brought 60 children on Tuesday, so they’ll get 60 points in the league table of schools.

“January’s theme is ‘Inspire’, so we want to inspire as many children as we can. ‘Develop’ will be in February and we’ll develop their core skills, maybe tackling, passing backwards and different things like that.

“In March we’re going to be competing. Whether it’s contact games or whatever format, that’s when we get points per win rather than points per player.”

Since he assumed the role in October, Hendrie has coached hundreds of aspiring rugby players.

“There’ll be over 500 that I’ve delivered to and that’s just in the schools,” he said.

“Some of them have had that perceived conception of what rugby is, that it’s always about tackling. What we’ve been trying to showcase is that it doesn’t have to always be that.

“It can be these fun passing games, similar to netball. There’s a lot of transferable skills from there, it’s just making it as enjoyable as possible to them.

“Talent-wise, there is a lot of talent on the island. It’s just trying to facilitate different streams for them to play in.

“There’s a 13-year-old girl at Dellwood, Kse Jennings. She’s one of the best talents I’ve ever seen, she literally picked up a rugby ball and she just had all the skills.

“I know working with the academies back home in Scotland, this girl would easily step into one of these academies at under-18s level.

“I know she has the drive to take her rugby further and she could be a massive star. We invited her to the Rugby Academy camp at Warwick Academy and she absolutely loved it, her parents have given really good feedback in terms of her enjoyment.”

The BRFU director of rugby operations believes that there are a lot of naturally gifted players in the public school system.

“I’m targeting these government schools at the moment, because there’s so much talent within these schools,” he said.

“We need to facilitate something that can show them a pathway, that there’s a chance to go off-island and get scholarships, there’s a chance to play for your national team and travel the world with rugby.

“I know in April and May I’ll be in a lot more public schools. The biggest hurdle is that these schools have already planned what’s in front of them at the moment.”