The back row battle was of particular interest to him with No 8s Aaron Wainwright and Alex Dombrandt going head-to-head and Tom Pearson winning his first England cap alongside Harlequins skipper Dombrandt.
Wales also had a new cap from the Cyncoed academy in Gloucester bound centre Max Llewellyn. Just a few more names to add to the dozens of international players who have studied at Cardiff Met in its various guises down the years.
“I’ll be using these four players as shining examples to those who are in pre-season training with us at the moment. It’s always nice to see ex-students go all the way to the top,” said Milton.
“I’d love to see all four go to the World Cup. We also had two current students, Joe Westwood and Tom Pritchard, play for Wales at the U20 World Rugby Championship this summer.
“Tom and Alex played with us right through their time at Cyncoed, whereas Aaron and Max were taken into the reginoal system quite early. Joe has progressed so well we will lose him to the Dragons RFC set-up next season, but that’s part of the reason we are here.
“We’ve got 100 rugby players coming in next term and we try to give them the best possible rugby experience. If one or two of them go on to become professional players or even internationals, then that’s the iciing on the cake for us.”
To ensure the rugby experience at Cardiff Met is among the best on offer, the former Fiji Olympic gold medal winning sevens coach Gareth Baber has joined as director of rugby systems. He recently worked with Edinburgh and has also worked at Cardiff Blues in the past.
“Gareth will be a great addition to our rugby programme, along with a full-time coach in Tom Cole. It will allow myself and Ian Gardner to concentrate on the first team and trying to win the BUCS Super Rugby title again,” added Milton.
“We were quarter-finalists last year and semi-finalists the year before, losing to Exeter in both games. It is a long time, back in 2003, that we last won the title.
“We’ve brought five first year students into our performance squad and we’ve picked up former London Irish academy player Jack Walsh. We’ve also taken on two Dutch internationals who were recommended to us by their national coach, Lyn Jones.”
Milton will get his chance to see how his side is shaping up for the new season when they head to Loughborough for a pre-season friendly later this month. They are the reigning BUCS Super Rugby champions.
