RICHIE Rees admits it was a tough decision to turn down offers from England and France to stay in the professional game but that he couldn't risk passing on a job with the Newport Gwent Dragons academy

The former Wales scrum-half was torn when his playing contract at Rodney Parade expired at the end of last season.

Rees feels that at the age of 32 he still has plenty to offer and his performances in 20 appearances for the Dragons in 2014/15 back up that viewpoint.

But he also has a passion for education, as was shown when he completed his teacher training while playing for Cardiff Blues and Wales five years ago.

A role came available at the Dragons academy when Shaun Connor was promoted to the position of backs coach with the seniors in February.

Rees landed the job and has subsequently rejected tempting offers from professional clubs, preferring to stick with the Dragons and play semi-professionally for Cross Keys in the Principality Premiership.

"When the opportunity came up I had a few offers to play elsewhere but for me to turn this job down would have had to be something really worth my while," said Rees, who signed for Keys on Monday but could still play professionally on permit to cover for injuries.

"My body is fine and I want to carry on playing. It was a big decision but the risk was that a job wouldn't be there after carrying on for one or two years (professionally).

"I've always wanted to go into this and it was something that I thought I would move into in a couple of years' time but it has come up now.

"It was hard turning down some attractive offers – Bayonne made one and I had two in the Aviva Premiership –but I wanted to do this more and had to do what was good for me and those around me."

Rees was involved with the academy last season when coaching the Dragons Under-16s North and is now in charge of the under-18s.

The scrum-half will have to come to terms with not playing on the big stage in the coming months but its replacement is seeing his young prospects move towards turning out at Rodney Parade.

"Under-18s is the time when they are willing to put the hours in and you can really see the progress. That's really rewarding," said the skills coach.

"Connecting with them and seeing them improve is great and hopefully they will be good enough to go onto the seniors and keep improving."

And the youngsters aren't the only ones developing with Rees, who has just started his Welsh Rugby Union level three coaching badge, picking the brains of academy manager James Chapron.

He said: "I am learning all the time off 'Chappy' – we are the same age but he has been doing this a long time and it's great to learn off him while Shaun Connor is always close by and I can pester him.

"I suppose recently having played the game has its pros and cons. The academy players probably respect that I have been there and done it but I don't claim to know everything and I am learning myself."