Saracens Youngsters Train With Parachute Regiment

Saracens' academy players have been put through their paces by the British Army's Parachute Regiment ahead of the start of the new rugby season. 

The players spent two days at Merville Barracks in Colchester, with both their physical and mental strength put to the test. 

The youngsters had to endure a military beasting, as well as sleeping outside and eating military rations. 

Former Paratrooper and Saracens academy coach, Andy Dawling, arranged the boot camp.

"The interactions between the military and sport - there are so many parallels," he said. 

"So for me, it was a perfect match coming back to my old regiment, 7 PARA RHA (Royal Horse Artillery)."

After their first night of sleeping under the canvas, the players were woken up at 5am to the sound of soldiers firing blank rounds before lining up for a morning muster.

The players were then returned to more familiar surroundings - the rugby pitch - to play against 7 PARA RHA's side.  

Next up was the infamous stretcher race, a key part of the 'P Company test', which all potential PARAS have to do in their training. 

Normally the race is done over 5 kilometres, however, the Sarries were given a shorter distance. 

Saracens centre and England U18 international Josh Hallett told Forces News: "I was talking to one of the boys - if he makes a mistake out in the field then that's the difference between someone living and someone dying.

"Whereas us, it's only a smack on the wrist - I've got that much respect for the boys here doing what they do."

Forward Ollie Stonham said: "One of our main core values is work rate, so obviously that can be directly compared to what they do here. 

"Just working unbelievably hard, even when you don't want to work hard and you want to stop but you just keep going.

"I think there's a lot of similarities."