W RUGBY x ERA: THE BALL BUILT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
Elite coaching deserves an elite ball.
There's a difference between playing rugby and developing as a rugby player and Elite Rugby Academy understands that difference better than most.
So here it is: W RUGBY is the official ball partner of Elite Rugby Academy, supplying ERA branded coreplay // academy balls to every academy in its network.
BUILDING THE PLAYERS OF TOMORROW
ERA is a professional development programme that gives ambitious young players the environments, coaching, analysis and competition you'd normally only find inside the professional game.
Founded by Nash Cohen, ERA works with U13s to U16s across a growing network of academies, with elite coaching and a structured year-round pathway. The objective is simple: better players, better opportunities.
The programme runs in three phases, Training, Competition and Transition. Along the way players get high-level coaching, video analysis of their own game, strength and conditioning written for their age, professional-standard facilities and a national competitive environment. Boys and girls, same programme.
And it's growing fast. ERA now runs academies across England: London, Surrey, Kent, Milton Keynes, Brighton, Colchester, Durham and the Midlands.
That's a lot of young rugby players.
That's a lot of rugby balls.
THE BALL MATTERS
A rugby ball is the one bit of kit a player touches every single session. Carried, passed, kicked, caught, chased, dropped and picked up again.
For a developing player that repetition is the whole point. Every rep builds a habit. The ball decides whether it's a good one.
So it has to do its job. Grip a player can trust when it's cold and wet. The same flight every time, so the pass and the kick are on the player, not the ball. A feel in the hands that makes you want to keep throwing it. And a build that survives a season of academy rugby, which is more punishment than most match balls take in a lifetime.
That's coreplay // academy. It's our training ball, and it's the ball ERA will be using across the whole programme, customised with the ERA mark.
We couldn't think of a better place for it. Listen to what Nash has to say about why they chose W RUGBY
ONE FOR ERA. ONE FOR JAMAICA.
Every ball ERA ordered was matched, one for one, through Won for Won™. That's how it works with us. You buy a ball, a second one goes to grassroots rugby somewhere it's needed.
ERA chose where. Their matched balls have gone to Jamaica, through ERA's own connections on the island, into the hands of players who don't have an academy down the road or a kit room to raid.
So the same coreplay // academy ball being thrown around in Kent on a thursday night is being thrown around in Jamaica too. Same grip, same flight, very different weather.
That's the bit of this partnership we're proudest of, and ERA made it happen without being asked.
TWO BRANDS. ONE OBSESSION.
We obsess over grip, durability and feel because if the ball is wrong, everything you build on top of it is wrong too.
ERA take the same approach to players. Every session has a purpose. Every environment is there to challenge. Nothing is there for show.
That's a partnership that makes sense.
ERA develops the player.
W RUGBY supplies the weapon.
WATCH THIS SPACE
Some of the players picking up an ERA ball this month will be playing professional rugby in a few years. Most won't, and they'll go back to their clubs better for it. Both of those are wins.
Either way, they'll be doing the work with a W RUGBY in their hands. From the first cold session in September to the last pass of the last match, we're going with them.
See you on the pitch.
ABOUT ELITE RUGBY ACADEMY
Elite Rugby Academy is a professional rugby development programme and pathway for ambitious young players. Rather than operating as a traditional rugby club, ERA gives U13s to U16s access to elite coaching, professional environments, analysis and high-level competition, with a structured pathway towards representative, college and professional rugby.
Find out more about ERA: eliterugbyacademy.co.uk
Want your club, school or academy playing with W RUGBY?
