Cardiff Blues have strengthened their relationship with Cardiff Met by signing young second row prospect Miles Normandale
A product of Marlwood School in Bristol, Miles Normandale first thought about making a career from playing rugby after moving to Colston School for sixth form.
Colston has a rich rugby history with nearly 30 former pupils playing top flight rugby in the English Premiership over recent years with Gareth Delve, Olly Barkley, Shane Geraghty and Tom Varndell amongst them.
Speaking of how he joined Cardiff Blues the backrow or second row forward said,
“I was playing in a cup competition for Cardiff Met against Cardiff RFC and had one of my best games of the season.
“Richard Hodges, the Blues Academy Manager, was there and came over to speak to me to see if I’d be interested in joining.
“I then came over for a chat at the Vale Training Centre and it’s just gone from there really.
“I’ve had a good three years at Cardiff Met, studying Rugby coaching, but also learning the ins and outs of lots of different sports but really focusing heavily on rugby.
“I would play twice a week and you pick up a lot of new tricks off the Saturday teams and try to take the hardness of that into the Wednesday leagues.
“Cardiff Met has a really good set up for rugby.
“Chris Davey is the Head Coach and puts a lot of work into everything we do and he knows a lot about the game.
“He puts a lot into the analysis of the game as well.
“We have videos of each game so that we can understand where we need to improve and what we are doing well.
“Conditioning wise that is where I have really improved over the last three years.
“Dai Watts who heads up the conditioning has put in a lot of work with us boys, so a big thanks to them really.
Away from rugby Normandale seems to have settled well into his adopted city,
“I’ve had a great time here, it’s a brilliant city to live in,” he said.
“It’s quite a small city so everybody knows each other, but it’s easy to get around. I really enjoy living here.
“I’m just trying to work hard and keep my feet on the ground at the moment.
“It is very inspiring to be training at the same place as the likes of Leigh Halfpenny and Sam Warburton.
“My goal is to train hard over the summer, to be the best I can be and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Richard Hodges Cardiff Blues / WRU Performance Manager said,
“I have an excellent working relationship with Chris Davey at Cardiff Met.
“He does a fantastic job there and of course they are on our doorstep.
“To be fair to them we have been up to see them at Cardiff Met, sat down and had a chat to see what they can do for us and what we can do for them and the relationship is working well.
“Miles sprung to the forefront when Cardiff RFC faced Cardiff Met in the SWALEC Cup.
“He had an outstanding performance at that match, we followed him for a few games including the finals at Twickenham and he stood out.
“He is here to strengthen the second row recourses and will be here for at least the next two years.
“His performances are good and he has a tough edge to him as well so I think he could fly in this environment.
Chris Davey, Cardiff Met Director of Rugby said,
“Miles has all the physical attributes to be a top rugby player, he’s a great athlete in excellent shape.
“I think he’s ready to make the step up having played regularly in the Championship and Division one. He’s earned his stripes.
“He’s good at the line out, is very mobile and is prepared to take on leadership roles.
“Cardiff Met’s relationship with Cardiff Blues has improved dramatically over the past two years.
“Richard Hodges has been excellent in growing the relationship which is going from strength to strength.
“We have a good dialogue regarding players who are studying at Cardiff Met and are also part of the Blues Development pathway in terms of, where they should play and what kind of training they should be doing.
“It’s been another successful season for us we reached the final of the British Universities competition and finished third in the SWALEC Championship so overall we are very pleased.”