The Vale Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort

Vale Resort home to finest rugby facilities in the world. Unveiling the plaque at the WRU's new 3G pitch at the Vale is (l-r) Stephen Leeke, MD Vale Resort, Roger Lewis, CEO WRU, First Minister Rhodri Morgan, Phil Carling, Chairman Sport Council for Wales.

A £4 million new WRU National Centre of Excellence based at the Vale Resort in Hensol nr Cardiff has been hailed as unrivalled in world rugby. The facilities were officially opened by the First Minister, Rhodri Morgan.

From now on all international rugby players selected to represent Wales at any level will train at the same base with the best available pitches, training facilities, medical equipment, coaches and backroom personnel on hand to help them strive for excellence.

A high-performance "finishing school" has been created at the Vale Resort near Cardiff where every aspect of international rugby preparation is catered for.

As well as the substantial input and support given by the Vale Resort in creating the new centre, the Sports Council for Wales has invested £1.5million of National Lottery funding and the WRU provided the further £1m required to complete the project.

The facility is also home to the newly formed WRU National Academy which will select high-calibre players, coaches and match officials from the men's and women's game for specialist and personal training at the highest level.

The World Cup-winning Wales Rugby Sevens Champions squad is also based at the National Centre of Excellence as a core element of the Welsh international pathway structure.

Facilities which the Vale has engineered and completed in partnership with the WRU are three outdoor full-size pitches along with external skills training zones where players can focus on scrummage and lineout technique and performance.

One of the three pitches has an all weather surface and is fully floodlit to allow day or night time sessions to take place all year round.

Alongside that 3G all-weather pitch is a second full size grass pitch which is also fully floodlit to TV broadcast quality standard.

The third outdoor pitch has an international match quality grass surface and is exactly the same size as the pitch at the Millennium Stadium where the senior Wales team play home test matches.

The main building at the WRU National Centre of Excellence contains two administration and training blocks, changing rooms, team rooms, a fully equipped gymnasium and an indoor artificial 3G pitch of exactly the same quality as the outdoor version.

One administration block in the building houses the senior national squad backroom team of Head Coach Warren Gatland, his assistants, analysts, conditioners, physiotherapists, medical team and squad administration staff.

On the opposite side of the National Centre of Excellence, under WRU Head of Rugby Performance and Development, Joe Lydon, the Wales international pathway structure for players, coaches and match officials plus the National Academy staff are based.

It is a highly competitive training environment within which players get the most innovative support for their playing skills, conditioning and off the field development.

The senior team has been based at the Vale Resort for several years but the major new investment has transformed the facilities around their presence into a bespoke and exclusive centre of excellence purely for Welsh international rugby use.

Senior international squad players will continue to stay at the adjoining Vale Resort hotel when they are on Wales duty preparing for RBS Six Nations, Summer tours and Invesco Perpetual Series matches in future.

The WRU is also indebted to Leekes and Vale Resort chairman Gerald Leeke and the Vale's Managing Director Stephen Leeke who have enabled the facility to be based at their Vale Resort and Spa.

WRU Group Chief Executive, Roger Lewis, said:

"I am delighted that Wales now has an international training and development facility which will be the envy of the rugby playing world.

"It has taken a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment to achieve this and the end result is a National Centre of Excellence the whole of Wales can be proud of.

"The creation of a National Centre of Excellence shows we understand the need to invest in talent and provide the finest support structures we can possibly offer.

"Gerald and Stephen Leeke have been pivotal in sharing our vision and leaving no stone unturned to ensure this became a reality here today."

First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, said:

"The development of this National Centre of Excellence has been a long-held aim for the Welsh Rugby Union. Today, the Union deserves congratulations for bringing it to fruition. The Sports Council has played a vital role in this project and I would like to praise their commitment and support."

"This state-of-the-art facility will give our elite National Squads the best possible opportunity to gain an edge and win those games where an extra two or three percent is the difference between success and defeat."

Sports Council for Wales Chair, Phil Carling, said

"Through National Lottery funding, the Sports Council for Wales has been able to create landmark facilities through out Wales up and down Wales. To achieve sporting success, coaches, athletes and teams need the right environment in which to train and hone their talents. The new national centre for excellence will join the many other lottery supported national centres such as the Velodrome in Newport the Wales National Pool in Swansea and National sailing centre Plas Menia sports where Wales and GB have seen unprecedented Arguably, the National Centre of Excellence is second to none and will now further Wales as a powerhouse of world rugby."

Managing Director of the Vale Resort, Stephen Leeke, said

"Our ambition at the Vale Resort has been to create a world-class hospitality business that has at its very core some of the best sport and fitness facilities available anywhere in Europe.

"To establish this extensive and innovative world-class facility for the WRU has taken vision and determination. The reality is that thanks to a strong and unique partnership between ourselves, the WRU and Sports Council, Wales has one of the finest rugby training facilities in the world.

"This is something that as an independent family-owned business, we are very proud to have helped achieve. It marks another major chapter in a history of more than 20 years support and investment by Leekes and The Vale into helping develop sport in Wales from grass-roots up to international level."