Meet the players day on Aug 11

Twickenham Stadium is certainly the place to be from 12.30pm onwards on Wednesday, August 11, for all of England’s rugby union fans in the South West.

For not only will they get the exciting opportunity to meet England captain Lewis Moody and the Senior England Elite Player squad during their now annual Open Training Day free of charge, but there will also be the chance to meet the full England Women’s World Cup squad.

The England Women’s squad are currently putting their finishing touches to their preparations for the 2010 IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup that takes place in England during August and September with the pool games being staged at the multi million pound Surrey Sports Park in Guildford, and the semi finals and final at the Harlequins Stoop ground, home to the Aviva Premiership side .

Excited England Women’s captain Catherine Spencer says: “We had the privilege of playing at Twickenham last year and to be able to train there in front of England supporters will be fantastic, especially just days before the world cup.

“We are all currently training extremely hard as we move closer to our first game on August 20 against Ireland, so to train at the home of England Rugby will be a real boost for us.”

To see the England Women’s team train is an additional bonus for all England fans both young and old, male and female, and brings an added dimension to a day that’s rapidly becoming one not to be missed ahead of the new season.

Twickenham’s gates open at 12.30pm and the Women’s hour-long training session will begin at 1.15 pm after which fans can meet the players and grab autographs before the full England Elite squad, including the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Mark Cueto and Nick Easter, take to the pitch for their training session from 2.30pm onwards.

It’s the start of their build-up to the forthcoming Investec Internationals against New Zealand (6th), Australia (13th), Samoa (20th) and world champions South Africa (27th) all of which will be played at Twickenham during November.

The session will end around 3.45pm, after which the entire squad, along with the management, including former World Cup winning hero and team manager Martin Johnson will sign autographs and chat to their fans up close for around an hour.

“The open training sessions have proved to be very popular with the fans and the squad,” comments Johnson.

“It’s a great opportunity for the players, coaches and management to meet the people who follow us every season and we hope to see another big turn out on August 11.”

As well as watching the training sessions inside the stadium, there will be further fun activities for all the fans attending taking place in the Stadium’s West car park, details of which will be announced in due course.