Saints add 4 schoolboys to Senior Academy

Northampton Saints have confirmed that four schoolboys will be given senior academy contracts for the 2015/16 season.

Will Allman, Alex Moon, George Furbank, and Tim Cardall will all be full time professionals next season after finished their school studies in June.

Allman, from Trent College, is a flanker who has played in all six of England U18s’ fixtures this season and also won the NatWest Vase with Trent College last year. He will join an already competitive Saints back row, which includes another Senior Academy man in the former St Joseph’s College flanker Lewis Ludlum.

Alex Moon, like Allman, is an England U18 international. The second row hails from Sedbergh School, the great rugby hotbed of the North of England, which has produced players such as Will Carling, Will Greenwood, and James Simpson-Daniel.

Moon will be joined in the second row by Tim Cardall. Cardall has partnered Moon in the England U18 second row too and is currently at Moulton College, the Northampton Saints affiliated AASE side.

Furbank is from Bedford School, whose most recent prospect was Ollie Lyons, who was a part of the Wasps Senior Academy this season. Furbank is a full back and will face stiff competition in the back three at Saints, with the likes of Howard Packman and Tom Collins among the players competing with him.

Announcing the contracts for the four young players, Director of rugby Jim Mallinder said:

“The hard work of the club’s Academy coaches – as well as the conditioning team and physios – along with support from the players’ parents is ensuring that we have a steady stream of very good young players coming through the system and into the full-time ranks, as much as we would like to offer a contract to everyone we’re not in a position to do so, and those players who do get offered one have earned their opportunity.”

“The four players that we have signed will complement the existing players in the Senior Academy and we’re looking forward to seeing them develop.”