Warrington Wolves performance a department have played hosts to Rugby League Deutschland head coach, Dan Stocks and development manager Uwe Jansen this week, building upon the relationship started last year to support the progress of rugby league within the German infrastructure.

Over a three-day period the club's guests were active in many specific learning areas, including working with the community staff in primary and high schools, getting to understand club philosophies and delivery and understanding of the importance of the community programme and its direct link to performance successes.

Head of Junior Strength and Conditioning Gareth Whittaker spent time showing Stocks and Jansen not only the plan for developing athletes but also working with the junior players in the gym, doing various aspects of strength and conditioning.

Alongside Gary Chambers, head coach of the Academy U19s the duo spent an afternoon working on analysis, breaking down and understanding different aspects of offence and defence as well as improving individual skills and decision making. Following the game review the German staff observed Chambers and his coaching team delivering to his U19 players.

Stocks found the visit to be a great insight: “The two days that we have spent with the Warrington Wolves performance department has been hugely beneficial. Being able to look in detail at the many systems which the Wolves use in order to develop their youth players was a real eye opener and Rugby League Deutschland is looking forward to utilising some of these techniques within their organisation.

"The coaching staff at the Wolves have been second to none and have been truly great hosts. Spending time looking at strength and conditioning, skill development, nutrition, match analysis and community development has been a great learning experience and RLD would like to thank everyone at Warrington Wolves in particular John Bastian, Ben Lazenby and Gareth Whittaker for the time, effort and hospitality they have shown us over the two days. We are looking forward to developing a good relationship with Warrington which will help us as we aim to develop the greatest game in Germany.”

Jansen, who has been instrumental in introducing rugby league primarily to youth players, a constituency in which RL Deutschland sees a particular opportunity to generate a long-term affinity with the sport, was delighted to see the the relationship take the next step: "Warrington was fantastic; I never received so much information in only two days, and I'm completely happy with the experience."

Over the course of their short visit, the visitors experienced the work that the Warrington Wolves deliver from introducing a rugby ball to a primary school pupil, growing the knowledge of the sport in secondary schools, identifying and working with elite junior players at U16 and U19 level, as well as analysing games and introducing improvement mechanisms for skills, game knowledge and understanding. The Warrington Wolves performance department is looking forwards to an exciting 2013 and beyond with its German partners that will see more visits between camps both Warrington and in Germany.

Pictured (from left): Ben Lazenby, Uwe Jansen, John Bastian and Dan Stocks.