Bow Valley Rugby Club coaches received a helping hand last night from Canadian national team rugby half scrum Gordon McRorie.

The Mitford Pond field was packed with U13, U15 and U17 boys and girls of the Bow Valley Rugby Club eager to participate in a 1 1/2 hour training session, June 13. McRorie, coach development officer for Rugby Alberta, says he was impressed with the coaching being provided.

"It's good to see all these kids here in Cochrane. It looks like they love the game which means the coaches are doing something right. Just watching what the coaches are doing is very, very promising. I think these guys are doing a great job here."

McRorie will be visiting rugby clubs from Red Deer to Lethbridge for Rugby Alberta to help provide ideas for coaches for game-oriented practices. It may not be him specifically, but Rugby Alberta trainers will be making future visits to the Bow Valley club.

"We want to help them out as much as possible with the development of players with the goal of improving the quality of rugby in Alberta and Canada."

McRorie played for Canada in the 2015 IRB Rugby World Cup and he may be on the roster for World championship being hosted in Japan this September. He plays for Calgary Hornets, Prairie Wolf Pack and has made 34 appearances for Canada.

Besides playing against the Grizzlies in the Alberta Cup premier league, McRorie has been here previously on behalf of Rugby Alberta to work with the Grizzlies.

While many of the younger teams of the Bow Valley club are nearing the end of their season, it's just beginning to unfold for the U17 players.

BVRC president Adrian Turner says it will indeed be a busy summer for the club. Two touring rugby clubs from the United Kingdom will be here for exhibition matches on July 13 and 16. A British Army team is also scheduled to play an exhibition 15s game against the Grizzlies on July 1.

Last July, two teams from the Altrincham Grammar School for Boys started their Alberta tour here in Cochrane.

"The boys had such a good time, the company organizing the tour asked if we could host two clubs this year," says Turner.

He hopes they will be able to host UK girls teams in the future with the growing interest in the U17 girls' team. A successfully season of the CobraCats high school girls team has created a buzz.

"That's a good job done by the coaches. It has enthused them to want to come out and play."

It's the development of youth that Turner finds most inspiring and most important for the club.

"For myself, that's what I'm really passionate about; ensuring we have a good core of guys and girls coming through the system to feed the senior programs and to keep everybody enthused to play the game."