England RL to train at St George’s Park

Steve McNamara’s England team will be preparing for this autumn’s internationals against France and New Zealand at St George’s Park, the Football Association’s training facility in Staffordshire.

The facility is where all of England‘s soccer teams train, and boasts 330 acres of space as well as £150 million worth of facilities.

“Moving to St George’s Park is the next step in England’s performance plan as we prepare to beat the world’s number one team, New Zealand in November,” said England coach McNamara.

“I’ve visited the training facilities a couple of times now with players and staff and on each occasion we’ve been really impressed with what’s on offer.

“I can already see how we’ll be getting the best out of St George’s Park when the squad comes together in October.

“In the last meeting we had we asked the players to start finding those marginal gains that can turn a good performance into victories – moving to a place like this will give England as a whole that extra push in the international series to perform at a higher level.”

RFL director of performance and coaching Jon Roberts added: “Every year we review and look for improvements and developments in our programme and are delighted to have reached an agreement to base ourselves at St George’s Park this year.

“This will allow us to continue to build upon and extend the sports science support and recovery and preparation programme.

“St George’s Park have invested heavily in the development of world-class facilities and the opportunity has arisen to move our camp this year.

“We will review after the New Zealand series looking forward to 2016 and preparations for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.

“I would like to thank Loughborough University who provided a world-class environment for England during our camps in the last few years.”