Following last week’s announcement that their 2017 tour will be to Canada, the ISRFC Lambs have today announced their structure for the 2016/17 season.
For those new to the Lambs concept, players are eligible to compete for the Lambs after being nominated by their school coaches, provided that they are not part of any academies.
Following nomination, players are then put through a rigorous series of trials, with numbers being whittled down until the Lambs National Squad is selected in January. This squad then plays a series of games before going on tour, the crowning point of the Lambs’ season. You can read about this 2017’s trip to Canada here: 2017 Lambs will head to Canada.
This year the Lambs’ process begins on Monday 31st October. That is the day that nominations of players are made by school coaches. At this stage the Lambs is a regional system, with four regions, North, Midlands, South East, and South West.
Sunday 4th December sees players selected to those four Lambs regions, with the first warm up games taking place on Sunday 11th December.
The process then has a quick hiatus over Christmas before resuming on Sunday 8th January with a round robin series of games forming the first part of selection to the full National Squad.
From there the Lambs squad is selected and the fixtures begin. First up they face Irish Exiles on Sunday 22nd January.
Moving into February, the first game is against Crawshays on Sunday 5th February, with Yorkshire on Sunday 12th February. Boys Club of Wales are up next on Sunday 19th February.
The Lambs then have two midweek games before their tour departs, on Tuesday 28th February against Northampton Saints and on Monday 6th March against Saracens, though that date is still to be confirmed.
The tour squad then departs on Thursday 30th March for their tour of Canada, where they will play four games including a fixture against Canada U18 on Sunday 9th March ahead of their arrival back in the UK on Tuesday 11th March.
The Lambs’ season then comes to a close with fixtures for the U16s and U18s on Saturday 29th April against Irish Exiles and Worcester Warriors, with a big end of season dinner afterwards at Loughborough University that all players, parents, former players, coaches, and spectators would be highly encouraged to get along to!
It ought to be a superb season of ‘fast and free’ rugby once again, and we are just a couple of months away from the process starting!
2016 ISRFC Lambs Season Structure
Monday 31st October – Nominations open for the four regions
Sunday 4th December – Regional Selection days
Sunday 11th December – Regional warm up games
Sunday 18th December – Reserve Sunday
Sunday 8th January – Selection to National Squad, round robin weekend for all 4 regions (venue TBC)
Sunday 15th January – Reserve weekend
Sunday 22nd January – Irish Exiles
Sunday 29th January – Reserve weekend
Sunday 5th February – Crawshays Welsh
Sunday 12th February – Yorkshire
Sunday 19th February – Boys Club of Wales
Tuesday 28th February – Northampton Saints
Monday 6th March – Saracens
30th March to 11th April 2017 – Canada Tour
- Saturday 1st April – Match Day 1 v Caplilano RFC, Vancouver
- Monday 3rd April – Match Day 2 v Pacific Loggers, Seattle
- Thursday 6th April – Match Day 3 v British Columbia Select XV, Vancouver
- Sunday 9th April – Match Day 4 v Canada U18, Victoria
Saturday 29th April – Irish Exiles (16s) and Worcester 17s (18s) plus dinner. (Loughborough)
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