Exeter Chiefs’ players join youth teams at Honiton Rugby Club for a special training session.

Youth teams at Honiton Rugby Football Club were given the chance to practise their skills with some of the Exeter Chiefs players in a special training session.

Jack Nowell, fresh from his England debut, along with scrum-half Dave Lewis, back-row David Ewers, prop Luke Cowan-Dickie and centre Sam Hill all gave their time to the U12s, U13s and U14s of Honiton in a 90-minute session, which saw the Honiton teams put through their paces and get top-class advice from players who compete at the highest level.

The event was organised by Exeter-based financial claims management company EMCAS, who are active sponsors of both clubs.

Jack Nowell said: “I think as professional players, we have a duty to get out into the local community and help spread the message of not only the Chiefs, but rugby union as a whole. With the Rugby World Cup coming to England and Exeter next year, it’s a great opportunity to get young people playing and learning about the game.”

Simon Lancaster, the chairman of the mini and junior section at Honiton RFC, added: “We were contacted by EMCAS about some Exeter Chiefs players joining one of our training sessions, but we didn’t even dream of potentially hosting England world championship U20s winners and the local hero Jack Nowell fresh from his Six Nations tour and try scoring performance in Rome. The players that arrived were out and out professionals and posed great role models for the hordes of Honiton RFC U12 - U14 players waiting to put them through their paces.

“We were very impressed with the players’ willingness to get involved and we’d like to express our most sincere gratitude to both Exeter rugby club and EMCAS for making a lot of players (and mums) very happy.”

During the training session the children were able to practise skills, such as passing.

At the end of the session, the players answered questions and posed for pictures as well as signing autographs.