Former international rugby player Lee Byrne visited Weston College to talk about his career and answer questions from the College’s sports academy students.

The rugby star was shown the College’s sports facilities, including its new 3G artificial grass pitch located on the former site of Grove Park’s tennis courts.

Lee told the students about his career, which included working as captain for Newport Gwent Dragons, playing for Wales in the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2008, and as full-back for the Lions in South Africa in 2009.

During the Q&A, Lee said that he left school at a young age as he was not receiving support for his dyslexia, before commenting that he “would have loved to have come to a college like Weston,” which was awarded a Beacon Award in 2012 for its training programmes for learning support staff.

Sam Bate, 17, from Bridgwater, said: “It was a different experience to a normal guest lecture, Lee’s a big name in rugby and gave us a great insight into professional sport.”

Paul Taylor, Weston College’s Sports Development and Performance Manager, said: “This session has offered invaluable information to our students about training techniques and what it takes to be a professional sportsperson.”

“These insights will be useful to our learners, both in lessons and throughout their future sporting careers.”