JAY CATTON played a supporting part in Wales’ Six Nations Grand Slam - and now he wants a starring role in the country’s week long festival of football.

Catton and his fellow FAW Pro Licence candidates, including former Wrexham boss Sam Ricketts and ex-Wales international Jack Collison, spent the day with the Welsh Rugby Union as they prepared for the clash with Scotland earlier this month.

Connah’s Quay Nomads’ director of football Catton, one of the youngest ever to take part in the course, said: “It was an amazing day. We spent the whole day with the WRU and got to watch Warren Gatland and his staff work with the players on the pitch with the forwards and the backs.

“We had a whole afternoon of speaking with them, doing Q&A’s etc and it was absolutely phenomenal.

“When you spend the day with them and you see the preparation, detail and professionalism that goes into everything they do, there is no surprise they’ve gone on to achieve what they have done. It was meticulous. It was amazing.

“I’m a big rugby fan and for the whole country to watch that performance against Ireland after what they have done over a five or six week period was top class.”

Catton and the rest of the Pro Licence candidates also helped the Welsh pack work on their scrummaging under the watchful eye of Gatland and Robin McBryde.

Asked how far the scrum managed to push Catton and company on the training device, he said: “Two or three yards, which was a lot we were told given the weight. The strength was amazing and the togetherness in what they do was phenomenal.”

After Gatland’s Wales brushed aside all before them to record a Six Nations cleansweep, the country’s attentions now turn to football.

Wales C meet England C in Salford on Tuesday night, before Ryan Giggs’ senior side return to Wrexham for the first time in 11 years as they tackle Trinidad & Tobago at The Racecourse Ground on Wednesday.

Giggs’ men kick-off their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign against Slovakia in Cardiff on Sunday, but sandwiched between the two senior internationals is the small matter of Connah’s Quay Nomads’ Scottish Challenge Cup final with Ross County in Inverness on Saturday (4.30pm).

“It’s a massive week,” declared Catton. “Welsh football is really booming at the moment.

“Wales C is massive for the league and it’s great for us to have Jake Phillips in the squad for the match against England.

“Then there is the Wales first team back in Wrexham, which is massive for north Wales because there is always a big debate around the fact that the majority of support for Wales is from the north and games are in the south, which is understandable.

“To get a game in Wrexham is huge and everyone will be buzzing from that, before we travel to Scotland to face Ross County as the first Welsh team to reach the Scottish Challenge Cup final.

“The teams we’ve had to beat along the way shows how historic it is and it’s an event we are really, really looking forward to.

“Hopefully we can play our part in the Scottish Challenge Cup final at the weekend.”