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45
YOUTH RUBGY
“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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