I’m having a whale of a time
Kits a ‘disgrace’ Salt the secret
SOMETIMES, like when Bath’s owner Bruce Craig demands a game is replayed because his side have come out on the wrong end of the referee’s decisions, you despair for professional rugby.
Craig seriously did this after Bath lost to Toulouse in the first round of the Heineken Cup. If that is the type of individual the moneyed game attracts, then what hope has the sport in hanging on to its soul?
Yet just when your heart is heading down to the basement along comes something to make it soar and, as fate would have it, she is to be found down at the Rec too.
Jade Whale is 17. She has to her name one GCSE from her days at The John of Gaunt School in Trowbridge. She did not like school. She was uncommunicative,unresponsive and unhappy there, so sometimes she did not go in. And when she did go in, she would sometimes walk out.
But over a year after leaving for good, Whale was in London last week to shake hands with the decorated former England star Maggie Alphonsi and take possession of the Premiership’s HITZ programme’s Rugby Ambassador Award.
HITZ is an education and employability scheme run up and down the country by the Premiership clubs that uses rugby’s values to turn around the lives of wayward teens and put them back on track.
And in Whale’s case, it has proved transformational.
“I was a kid that didn’t like school. I was in trouble a bit. The school threatened to get the police in a few times,” she said.
“I didn’t like being in the classroom. I walked out of business studies, PE and IT. I didn’t even go to my IT exam. My family were asking why. I didn’t know. I just knew that I hated school and I wanted to get out of there.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left. I didn’t like rugby – in fact I hated it, I didn’t understand it at all but I thought I would go for a week and try HITZ out. I really enjoyed it. The team HEINEKEN CUP organisers are to issue an apology to Cardiff Blues and Glasgow after allowing a kit clash that caused confusion in their encounter on Sunday.
Cardiff fly-half Gareth Anscombe labelled the mix-up “a disgrace” and said European Professional Club Rugby should be held accountable after the teams wore marginally different shades of blue. In a statement, the organisers said: “EPCR have procedures in place for ensuring that playing kits for matches are distinctive, however these procedures were not sufficiently followed through for last weekend’s Heineken Cup.
“EPCR will be formally contacting both Cardiff Blues and Glasgow Warriors in due course to apologise.” were so welcoming. It felt like a family.”
Whale added an English GCSE to her maths qualification and, as her selfconfidence rose, she became a volunteer at Walcott Warriors’ mixed-ability rugby sessions. From there, she was taken on as a match-day logistics assistant at Bath and has now just landed an apprenticeship with the Bath Foundation.
“I got lucky. If I didn’t have HITZ, I don’t think I’d be where I am. I would have probably dropped out of college and be in a really bad job,” said Whale.
“I think my teachers thought I wouldn’t get far in life because I didn’t have the ‘go’ in school. But I’m going places and I want to just keep going and going and going.”
As a talented young footballer who once trained with Swindon, she was also invited along to Bath Ladies at the start of the season to try out playing the sport. Something clicked. Three games and two tries in, she is a convert.
“I love it. I play on the wing. I was a striker in football so it’s kind of the same and I love smashing people. What could be better?” she said.
“I used to be football crazy but rugby is just totally different. It’s the feel of community. We always go out for a meal or for drinks after games.
“I would love to be an England Red Rose one
day – anyone would.
That would be amazing.” ENGLAND fly to Portugal tomorrow for their training camp with a secret ingredient on board – pink salt from the Himalayas.
The special salt, which contains more natural minerals than the garden variety, is lower in sodium.
It is part of the nutritional attention planned for the 36-man squad. England will also take a chef to their Vilamoura training complex for the eight-day trip. “Last time we went was a complete waste of time,” said coach Eddie Jones. “The players came in beaten up from club rugby and most couldn’t train until Friday.
“We will have a good week there before we come back for the next game.”
England will return less than 48 hours before the Test against South Africa at Twickenham.