The Academy season is in full swing

Sunday saw two impressive wins for Saints’ Under-16s as they took part in the Under-16 RFU Academy Festival at Warwick School.

Joining five other academies that will be competing at Wellington College Festival next week, Saints first beat Gloucester and then Bristol where they posted another impressive win.

Ross Stewart said that while they were impressed with the wins, there was still plenty to work on as the Under-16s look ahead to Wellington.

“Yesterday’s competition gave us a good opportunity to play with some of the new laws that are being trialled.

“We took a squad of 25 and the majority of that squad will go to Wellington as well next week.

“First up was Gloucester and the boys did outstandingly well. They scored a lot of tries but left us with plenty to work on which is the perfect kind of game from a coaching perspective.

“It was very much the same against Bristol really. The first half we were outstanding and though we went to sleep a little bit in the second half the key thing for me is that the lads gained some additional experiences against opposition from all over the country.

“It sets us up nicely to go to Wellington and improve on the things that we didn’t do so well and really work on the things we did well.”

This week sees more action for the younger age groups of the academy with the Under-14 and Under-15 players training at Franklin’s Gardens today (Monday) before the Under-16s are back in action next week at Wellington College Festival. The residential festival runs from Monday through to Saturday and sees …

Following that, the Under-17s start their run of fixtures following their win over the Independent Schools Lambs back in February. They first host Leinster at Franklin’s Gardens on 18th April before travelling to Oval Park to face local rivals Leicester Tigers on 22ndand then Wasps at Northampton BBOB RFC on 28th.

U17 UPCOMING FIXTURES