Injury Armour - Strengthening Ties With Youth Rugby

Strengthening Ties With Youth Rugby

Juniors at Taunton RFC who have bought a new playing kit this season via the club website are proudly sporting the smart shirt with a familiar logo emblazoned on the chest. Injury Armour, the sports physio and rehabilitation practice based at Veritas Park, has backed the flourishing junior section and committed to three years of sponsorship.

Injury Armour was set up during the Covid-19 lockdown by Titans’ Head Physiotherapist, Adam Rutter. In just three years it has grown to the extent that there are now three physios and Strength and Conditioning coach, Lyndon Lane. Operating out of the ground floor of the rugby club, there are obvious synergies between Injury Armour and Taunton RFC. “We’ve wanted to do more for the rugby club,” says Adam, “And this season we’re in a position to do that. I’m a massive advocate of youth sport but I didn’t quite appreciate the scale of the youth section until, organically, we had some of the players come in to have their injuries and recovery managed.”

Naturally the sponsorship brings Injury Armour to the attention of junior players and their parents but, more important than growing the business, Adam wanted to repay the rugby club’s assistance in helping him establish his company.

“I’m a massive believer that the future of the Titans should come from our youth section here,” says Adam. “Within rugby there’s so much focus on the Premiership clubs’ Academies that sometimes the aspiration for a youngster to say ‘One day I want to be a Titan’ can get lost. If we can get the youngsters super engaged with rugby but also get them to see the pedigree that is the Titans, then that’s what we should be aiming for.”

“Healthier, Fitter, Happier –kids continuing to exercise into their adulthood is what we should ultimately be shooting for.”

The juniors playing in shirts with the Injury Armour logo on the front will only serve to reinforce Adam’s commitment to building robust bodies for life. “If we’ve got the kids preparing their bodies well and understanding injuries from a young age, understanding where the risks are within rugby, the importance of warming up properly, how to manage injuries if they’ve got niggles, we’re going to end up with healthier adults. For the rugby club that’s great but also for society as a whole.”

Taunton RFC Youth Chair, Sam Wallis, is thrilled with the backing from Injury Armour. “It’s great to see Injury Armour on the front of the junior section playing kit,” she says. “Adam and the Injury Armour team are based at Taunton RFC so this is about as local as you can get from a sponsor. We’re looking forward to working with Adam and having the chance to educate the players about the importance of looking after their bodies and what they can do to recover from knocks and niggles they may have during the season.”

Anyone buying the new shirt will get 10% off their first physio appointment with Injury Armour but for anyone wondering how their child or teenager can be fitter, faster, stronger, more resilient as a rugby player or even just to form better life habits, there is help on hand with Lyndon’s strength and conditioning coaching. “In turn, that should decrease the risk of injuries as well,” Adam explains.

Appropriately for a business which promotes Strength and Conditioning, Injury Armour is going from strength to strength. It has contracts with the Injured Jockey’s Fund, helping rehabilitate all the injured jockeys in the South-West alongside continuing to manage the wellbeing and performance needs of the Titans. Accessing the physio team or personal training programmes with Lyndon is not the exclusive preserve of elite sportsmen and women though. Anybody can book in. Adam confesses to having been conscious of people perceiving a physio clinic at a rugby club as being ‘just for rugby players’ but that’s not the case. “We are a general clinic for the general population – and the evidence is that by and large people don’t see us as being only accessible to elite sportsmen and women.” A pensioner wanting to be fit enough to look after the garden in summer will get the same care and attention as an injured Titan or jockey intending to get back into competion.

“What differentiates us is our promise that you will get the same level of physio and performance advice that you would get in a professional sports environment but targeted to whatever your goals are.”

In due course, when suitable premises can be found, a new Injury Armour clinic will open in Exeter. Adam’s vision is for Injury Armour to be providing the premium physiotherapy, rehabilitation and performance clinic across the region and indeed nationally, but there’s no suspicion of it pulling away from Taunton RFC. “This rugby club has been paramount to us getting to where we are after just three years,” he vows. “Which brings me back to why we want to get involved with supporting junior rugby here.”

A good number of Taunton RFC juniors have already used Injury Armour’s services. There are plans to have an Open Day on a Sunday in springtime when people will be able to pop in and see for themselves how injury treatment and strength and conditioning training works at their own rugby club. With links between Taunton RFC – and in particular the youth section – and Injury Armour developing and strengthening, there is every reason to believe that the aspiration to play for the Titans will become common place and realistic rather than exceptional.