NEWPORT is set to receive another massive boost to its growing reputation as Wales' fastest-growing sporting city.

A huge £2 million rugby Centre of Excellence has been planned at Coleg Gwent's Nash College site that will be one of four such centres in Wales.

Cash for the project is coming from a link-up between Sportslot, via the Welsh Rugby Union, Coleg Gwent themselves and ambitious local club Newport Saracens.

It will see Wales Under-21s and Under-19s training there plus the Gwent regional team and will be a base for the Saracens, who have been playing their matches at Newport Civil Service since selling their Sandy Lane ground in Duffryn in May 2000.

The facilities planned include:

* Three floodlit pitches, two of them to a very high standard.

* An indoor training 'barn' which is based almost exactly on the facility used by the Wales national rugby and football sides at the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel, Hensol.

* Plus a gym and video analysis room.

The Centre of Excellence is also a huge boost to Coleg Gwent who will now be able to have both academic and practical physical education NVQ courses prior to students moving on to do degrees at Caerleon University.

It will further enhance Newport's reputation in Wales as they already boast the Newport Stadium, home to both Newport County AFC and Newport Harriers Athletics Club, and the soon-to-be completed multi-million-pound cycling Velodrome at Spytty Park.

Newport Saracens are pumping 'a substantial' amount of money into the project and their chairman David Cain said: "We have been working on something like this since we were forced to sell our ground and this is an incredible opportunity for us.

"The facilities will be the best in Wales, all be it until the other centres of excellence are built.

"Dai Rees, general manager of Nash College, Coleg Gwent, has been working hard on this for the last three years and we are confident enough in the project to announce this now. John Shine, chairman of the Saracens development committee, said "Discussions are at an early stage and we still have a lot of ground to cover."

"But if we can bring this project to fruition it will be a very important development not only for our club but also for Newport and the development of rugby in South East Wales."

The project should be completed in two years when the Saracens hope to move in.

Cain added: "This is going to be right on the route of the new distributor road so there will be players as far away as Magor and St Mellons who will be able to get to training nights easily."

The added benefit for Gwent rugby as well as for the Saracens, who won both the Welsh National League Division Five East and Ben Francis Cup titles this year, is fringe players at Newport RFC can stay in the city.

Cain said: "All the Newport players who have not been able to make the grade have gone to Pontypool or Abertillery and, with this facility , they don't have to leave the city."