University rugby – the great untapped source
RFU seeks to reopen old route to bring students to professional game, writes
Upon being appointed Wasps director of rugby at the dawn of professionalism, Nigel Melville knew exactly where to head to bolster his squad. Alex King, Mark Denney and Josh Lewsey, among others, were picked up from Bristol University and they would go on to form the spine of one of the great English club sides.
Back then, universities were the conveyor belt for English rugby. The advent of the Premiership academy system changed that. Talent could now be reared in-house and as resources poured into the academies, the university route to professional rugby became redundant.
The development of the academy structure has been an undoubted success story but, as a mechanism for capturing talent, it is imperfect. Each year, a Premiership club will offer a handful of contracts to its 18-year age group of around 30 players. The remainder will be released.
Some, such as Joe Launchbury, via a spell stacking shelves, will be picked up by other clubs. Others will be lost entirely if not for universities. Alex Lozowski, Josh Beaumont, Dave Attwood, who could all tour with England this summer, are three such examples. Many clearly were never going to make it at the highest level, but there are plenty of late developers, particularly in the forwards, who need a platform to continue to develop.
Now the Rugby Football Union’s director of professional rugby, Melville wants universities to fill that role to complement the academy structure. “What we are looking at now is that there are more and more kids coming through but there is not an academy place for every single one of them,” Melville told
“Going to university shouldn’t mean you can’t play professional rugby. We want that pathway to be opened back up. That’s the message that we are trying to get across – that you can still do this, it is just a different pathway.”
This afternoon at Twickenham should provide a demonstration of that as Hartpury College take on Exeter in the British Universities and Colleges Sport Championship final. Hartpury are the powerhouses of the university game. Sebastian Negri, their captain, who has been capped by Italy, is just one of 15 internationals that the Gloucestershire establishment have produced, along with a further 60 age-grade and 13 women’s internationals.
They have close ties with Gloucester, who are tenants at their training ground, but Hartpury are an independent organisation who, as well as operating an under-18 college and university team, have a side who have won promotion to the Championship next season.
There is a decent smattering of experience with the likes of Mat Gilbert, the former Bath and Worcester flanker, in their ranks, but it is still mainly composed of students.
Training takes place from 7.30-9am before lectures on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. As great as the demands will be next season, John Barnes, the Hartpury director of rugby, says he will not be tempted to interfere with their Gary Woodland says he still plans to play at the Masters next week after revealing that he pulled out of last week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay in Austin before his second group match with Rory McIlroy because his pregnant wife Gabby had lost one of the twins they were expecting. The 32-yearold American said: “Gabby and I have had to cope with the heartbreaking loss of one of the babies, and our doctors will be closely monitoring the health of my wife and the other baby for the remainder of the pregnancy. At this point in time, I plan to play the Masters next week.” studies. “Education always comes first,” Barnes said. “That’s what they are there for first and foremost. It has proven over the years that the guys who work hardest turn out to be our better players. The ones who switch off in lectures often drop off. “Being in the Championship will be a really high standard for the student to be playing at and hopefully move on to professional rugby. That remains our aim. We are very lucky that we can provide a unique pathway from our under-18s into our university rugby team and then the Championship side.” A huge step forward for university rugby in general was the launch of the BUCS Super League this season. Previously, BUCS rugby was organised on a geographical basis. Now the eight best teams compete against each other week in, week out, vastly raising the overall standard of competition. “The standard of university rugby now will encourage more clubs to put their kids into universities because they know there is a good playing programme,” Barnes said. “Regular rugby is also a big issue for academy players and playing enough rugby to develop. I worked at Bristol academy for a number of years and a lot of young players simply do not play enough rugby. That’s what the universities can offer.” Where once the universities were left behind by the professionalism of the academies, now the balance is being redressed. “If you can offer players education as well as elite coaching and good competition and a lock’s fine is suspended until the end of next season, with the other half payable within 30 days. Maestri was charged with misconduct following allegedly critical comments he made about referee Wayne Barnes after the match in Paris. France won 20-18 after 20 minutes of second-half stoppage time were played, which included a series of scrums close to the Wales line. Meanwhile, pathway to maximise their potential, then that is a fantastic package,” Melville said.
The RFU’s interest in university rugby is not exclusively focused on producing more Premiership players. Melville believes universities will go on to become the main breeding ground for sevens internationals, but as Steve Grainger, the RFU development director explains, there is also the challenge of keeping the non-elite students in the game.
Grainger said. “We don’t have firm figures but we estimate that we lose 10,000 people as they go into university. We are losing a massive amount of people on an annual basis.” To stem that tide, the RFU has set up partnerships with 15 universities to help provide more playing opportunities from inter-mural teams to partnerships with local clubs. “This is all about opportunities,” Melville said. “Whether to have fun or to play at an elite level, we need to keep people within the game and universities are a brilliant vehicle to do both.” Leicester have announced new contract terms for England international Mathew Tait. The 31-year-old recently captained them to victory in the Anglo-Welsh Cup final. Mohammad Irfan has been banned from all cricket for a year and fined £8,000 after admitting corruption charges during this year’s Pakistan Super League. The 34-year-old left-arm fast bowler was one of three Pakistan international players facing charges in relation to events while playing for Islamabad United in the Twenty20 competition in the United Arab Emirates last month. But the Pakistan Cricket Board said yesterday that Irfan had admitted his wrong-doing, and that half of his 12-month ban may be suspended if there was no further breach and he co-operated with further conditions.