Saints Academy U18s return to action this Saturday (25 October) in the PREM Next Gen Academy league with a home fixture against Sale Sharks at Shelford Rugby Club (kick-off: 5:30pm), with the U17s in a friendly immediately following, also against Sale (kick-off: 7:30pm).
The young Saints started their league campaign in August with a high-scoring 64-51 victory over Exeter Chiefs, followed by a 33-7 defeat to Gloucester on the road the following week.
The players, post the opening two rounds of the Next Gen league, returned to their schools for competitive fixtures; however, training is back in full swing for U18s Head Coach Charlie Reed’s side as they prepare to take on northern rivals, Sale Sharks.
“We give them September off to make sure that they settle back into their schools,” Reed explained.
“There’s a big schoolboy rugby calendar going on at the moment with lots of important games that the boys need to be a part of.
“So, our training is relatively sporadic in terms of numbers, but what we’ve really gone after is just nailing the fundamentals of our game to try and get ourselves on the same page as quickly as we possibly can.”
“All of these schools that the boys play for have some high-pressure games week in, week out, with good opportunities for them to learn how to manage and how to win games and deal with pressure.
“So, all those things naturally fold back in when they’re with us. The main thing with us is how well we can get a good bit of cohesion through the squad in a minimum number of sessions.
“We had a lot of unforced errors against Gloucester in our previous game. So we’ve had a bit more education around decisions on when to keep hold of the ball, when to move it.”