SWINDON Storm are looking to expand into Chippenham following a successful taster session last weekend.

The club hosted the event on the Stanley Park 3G pitch, with a host of prospective players coming down to experience the sport for the first time.

Storm coaches were on hand to teach proper blocking and tackling techniques over two days in Chippenham, with players from the town’s rugby club joining in the sessions.

Head coach Steve Bennett admitted the club are keen to make the most of what Chippenham has to offer.

“I believe that Chippenham is a bit of an untapped resource in terms of American football in Wiltshire because there is a good-sized population there who like their sport,” he said.

“We’re looking to expand the sport into hubs around Wiltshire and hopefully Chippenham can be one of those.

“We’re going to offer youth programmes there and as the Sport England funding rolls in we can expand further.

“We’re going to be running a few more tasters and it was good to see so many Chippenham RFC players down and they took to it like a duck to water.

“They were soon knocking our players around no problem at all and they loved it so hopefully we can move things on.”

Nick Ashton, a rookie who attended the event, added: ”It’s a great way for anyone to keep in shape and take part in some hard hitting contact, a weekend well spent.”

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