Ulster Rugby vs Ospreys

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“There are now four U16 RDS with two sessions per month from October through to April. These squads are run by Ulster Rugby staff and eight Talent Coaches, in addition to the relevant managers, who are all volunteers. “Further investment in these players at U17 and U18 level can be seen in them training centrally as a squad each week. Jonny Gillespie is the Head Coach of these squads and puts together the technical and tactical content. This is delivered by a mix of staff and volunteer coaches including Academy staff and specialists. Identified players at this level also have S&C coaching support and access to a physiotherapist, when required.” Black is keen to praise the work of clubs but recognises that the new structures afford players more exposure to training and development games. “The clubs are doing a great job at youth level in terms of growing the game and coaching these players. However, most clubs only train once per week and have matches that can be sporadic. The aim is to supplement this good work being done by providing additional coaching sessions centrally per week, as well as visiting key players during their school day and squeezing in a 1-on-1 session. “I also organise a series of ‘development’ games during the season where we play competitive matches against Grammar Schools, which is worked around the club youth league structure. This provides additional rugby as well as stretching players beyond the levels of their current environment, which is key to their development in high performance.” This added investment, combined with a very strong working relationship with the Ulster

Branch Youth Committee, has started to show tangible results… This season there are two new entrants into the Hughes Insurance Academy who have come from the club youth game; hooker Adam McBurney (Randalstown RFC, now playing at Ballymena RFC) and back row Aaron Hall (Ballyclare RFC, now playing at Ballynahinch RFC). For the first time in three years, Ulster had representation in the Ireland U18 squad in the form of Rainey RFC second row John McCusker and Armagh RFC tighthead prop Paul Mullan. During the summer, two of the best U18 club players trained with their Grammar School counterparts and then played in the Schools Inter-provincial Championship. These were tighthead prop Callum Smyth (Rainey RFC) and second row Oisin Kiernan (Virginia RFC) and both performed very well throughout. Furthermore, Joe Dunleavey (Letterkenny RFC back row) and Cormac Fox (Armagh RFC flyhalf) were instrumental in helping Ulster to secure the recent U19 Inter-provincial Championship, with fine wins over Munster, Leinster and Connacht. “Results in the U18 Clubs Inter-provincial Championship in recent years may not have gone as well as we’d hope. However, we now have a number of players pressing for places at the next level in Ulster and Ireland representative teams as well as a good number of our U17 and U16 players coming through strongly. The next challenge though is to bring through more quality players in a ‘winning’ environment so that they go on to represent successful Ulster and Ireland teams of the future,” concluded Black.

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