The Twittersphere is an interesting place at the best of times but, recently, an article regarding which schools had provided players for England Under 18’s created some great discussion about how far back players’ journeys should be catalogued.
Personally, I don’t think the authors meant any offence by the work they carried out and, in all fairness, it was a chunk of work to go back through the entire history of England U18’s to get to the point they did.
What it did highlight however, is that the “WHO” we coach within the academy all come with their own experiences and, wherever they are being educated at the time of pulling on a jersey in the academy league is only one small piece of the jigsaw.
With this in mind, and to kick off a regular piece of work from within the Yorkshire Rugby academy, we will focus on two players, Ben & Louis who will be playing this week at Wasps and delve deeper into their back stories…
They both had early experiences of rugby from the ages of 8 & 7 respectively, Louis starting off in rugby league until secondary school where he joined his current club Old Roundhegians. Ben also had experience of League but primarily played Union through age grade. Both had significant support from parents in their early years, but each referenced the support from others as being a key part of their development.
Robin Kay, a stalwart of rugby union in Yorkshire over the years played a role in Ben beginning to understand the need to be fit enough to play at the next level and worked with him on this area of his game. Louis spoke of how Francis Cummins helped develop his skills during his early years in Rugby League (Francis has also worked at professional levels in Rugby Union).
Their pathway journeys were similar in that they experienced the Developing Player Programme (DPP) at 15/16 years old, Ben played for the County U16 team whilst Louis went on to play at U17 level.
It was another key individual, however, who played a part in supporting their transition from state school education into the independent sector. Roger Howard, who incidentally coached me at 15/16 years old, spotted both players at a DPP festival and gave them an opportunity to look at Woodhouse Grove school. Roger knew John Lindley, Louis’ coach at Old Roundhegians and also worked with Tom Ryder who was coaching the County U16 squad. Both boys chose to go to the school for their 6th form education and discussed what they have enjoyed and found challenging with their new environment.
They are both studying 2 A-Levels and a BTEC, with Louis looking at university and Ben exploring vocational opportunities, after a gap year in Australia and New Zealand. A key feature of what they enjoy about school life, quite obviously, is the extended contact time for rugby built around their studies as neither would have had the opportunity at their previous schools. Educationally, neither say that there is a massive difference day to day but the support and the networks that the school have has offered them chance to speak with industries and understand their options post 18 really well.
Of course, there are always challenges with a change in environments and both highlighted making new connections was the first challenge they encountered but, through the rugby programme, the new friendships happened fairly quickly, and both settled into life and stated that “Bedders” (Joe Bedford, head of Rugby) has been fantastically supportive throughout.
Thinking about the next few weeks, and personal ambitions for Academy League, both want to enjoy as many opportunities as possible and look forward to seeing how they go against some of the other clubs but mainly just cannot wait to get stuck into some games after a long time without “proper rugby”
We look forward to sharing more stories from in and around the academy in coming weeks in the absence of many of you being able to see us face to face still.
Yours in rugby
Stuart Dixon (Dicko)
Programme Lead
Yorkshire Rugby Academy have games against:
Wasps (A) 1st May at Broadstreet RFC
Sale Sharks (A) 9th May at Manchester Metropolitan University
Newcastle Falcons (H) 22nd May at Queen Ethelberga’s School
Northampton Saints (H) 30th May at Doncaster Knights RFC