Sports students based at Suffolk New College swapped round balls for odd shaped ones when they took part in a fun challenge ahead of the start of the Six Nations rugby tournament.
The learners are all on football-related courses that are taught jointly by the Ipswich Town Foundation and the college – and a group took time out from a training session to participate in a crossbar challenge that was made famous by the TV show Soccer AM that last aired in 2023.
One of the segments of the show saw players from professional teams try and kick the ball against the crossbar.
During the Suffolk New College and Ipswich Town Foundation challenge, a group from the football academy programme tried to kick a rugby ball from a distance at Portman Road.
Igor Grabowski, 16, from Woolpit is on a level three sports coaching and development course. Igor was the only one of the group to hit the bar. He said: “It took me by surprise and when I did it, I saw everyone running at me so I just ran away. It was good fun to take part in this.”
Charlie Lloyd is the Ipswich Town Foundation B team coach. Charlie said: “It was good to something a bit different in training.”
Sam Burman is a teacher and football manager at Suffolk New College. Sam said: “It was a good technical challenge for our players. Rugby and football are completely different on many levels – but in terms of hard work, determination and team work there are lots of similarities.”
Later during the Six Nations tournament, a group of other sports students from the College will be looking to take part in a fitness challenge where they will run, cycle or row the equivalent distance from Twickenham to Murrayfield for charity.
Here is the video of the students taking part in the challenge: