England are holding two Men’s Pathway Camps at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre this week, a tight five forwards camp, and a specialist backs camp.
The camp begins on Friday and will run through the weekend and is a progression from last year’s inaugural front five camp. Pathway scrum coach Nathan Catt was involved for the first time last year and this year he is joined by England U18 Head Coach Jonathan Pendlebury and England U20 Assistant Coach Andy Titterrell in running the tight five camp, with England’s Senior Men’s scrum coach, Tom Harrison, also in attendance.
26 forwards will be involved in the camp, while 29 back are involved in the specialist backs camp, which will see England U18 Assistant Coach Will Park, former England, Kenya, and USA 7s coach Mike Friday, and consultant coach Alan Kingsley running position-specific preparation. England U20 Head Coach Mark Mapletoft will also be keeping an eye on things.
The weekend’s schedule also offers the opportunity for specific Individual Development Plan focus from pathway coaches with further education around psychology and nutrition from James Mackenzie and Andy Kasper, respectively. A coach development workshop involving 15 Premiership Rugby academy coaches alongside the men’s pathway staff will also be hosted at the centre this Saturday.
Questions may be asked as to why this camp is happening in the middle of the schools rugby season, with important games taking place this weekend for a great number of schools, which players will doubtless be frustrated to miss, however with a further U18 camp in the final weekend of October, the half term slot is already taken up. There is also another in-term camp in November.
Ahead of the camp, Andy Titterrell said: “Last year’s camp proved highly beneficial and the successes for many players were evident in their individual progression and further minutes awarded on the pitch.”
“Whilst that resulted in silverware for some, what we always set out to do is to create an environment where players are allowed to explore their capabilities and test the boundaries of their game. This year will be no different, and the prospects we have coming through are incredibly promising to say the least. It’s a valuable opportunity for myself and the U20 coaches to continue our identification of the next players to break through into the pathway and to bring their IDPs to life in a testing camp environment.”
Will Parkin, meanwhile, said: “We always have development at the forefront of our minds for these camps and bringing the best players together in the country for their age, will certainly test their positional skills under a different pressure to what some of them have been under before.”
“The main purpose of coming to Bisham this week, which is slightly different to our usual camps, is to ensure the fundamentals of their positional skills are broken down and there is a real focus on individual skills rather than the team preparing for a game. As always, we want players to come in and make good mistakes, so they leave the camp as better players than when they arrived.”
“During our tour to South Africa, ‘Getting Better and Better and Better’ was about seizing an opportunity for players to take ownership of their development as well as the team. We similarly encourage this new group to take as much from this camp on and off the pitch, back to their schools, clubs and academies.”
England Front Five Camp Squad:
Archie Appleby (Northampton Saints, Sedbergh)
Diamond Ayiehfor (Leicester Tigers, Warwick)
Jonno Balding (Gloucester, Radley College)
Sam Bland (Yorkshire, Bishop Burton College)
Tom Davis (Sale Sharks, St Mary’s College)
Mathis Dehauteur (Saracens, Oaklands College)
Marlon Farouk-Roy (Saracens, Oaklands College)
Kealan Freeman-Price (Gloucester, Hartpury College)
Jerold Gorleku (Harlequins, Bishop Wand)
Kieran Hill (Bristol Bears, Richard Huish)
Dylan Hodkinson (Sale Sharks, Wirral Grammar)
Ollie Hull (Northampton Saints, Stamford)
Henry Laidlow (Harlequins, Trinity)
George Leyland (Bristol Bears, Clifton College)
Tubuna Maka (Leicester Tigers, Brooksby College)
Rory McKnight (Bath, Wellington College)
Bronson Mellowes (Leicester Tigers, Brooksby Melton College)
Alan Poku (Saracens, Bishop Wand)
Riley Raikes (Exeter Chiefs, Truro College)
Oli Scola (Northampton Saints, Northampton SfB)
Oliver Spence (Yorkshire, Grammar School at Leeds)
Ethan Surrey (Bristol Bears, City of Oxford College)
Oscar Thomas (Bath, Wellington College)
Sonny Tonga’uiha (Northampton Saints, Northampton SfB)
Elliot Williams (Harlequins, Gordon’s)
England Specialist Backs Camp Squad:
Ollie Batson (Exeter Chiefs, Exeter)
Noah Caluori (Saracens, Mill Hill)
Felix Champain (Harlequins, Worth)
George Dufty (Gloucester, Bromsgrove)
Ajay Edwards (Newcastle Falcons, Durham)
Lochie Glackin (Leicester Tigers, Denstone College)
Sonny Goode (Northampton Saints, Bloxham)
Ollie Harris (Bristol Bears, Clifton College)
Charlie Heard (Saracens, Berkhamsted)
Tom Jacques (Sale Sharks, Sedbergh)
Ryan Jones (Saracens, Mill Hill)
Finn Keylock (Saracens, Bishop Wand)
Bruno Lamb (Bristol Bears, SGS College)
James Linegar (Bath, Kingswood)
Henry Lumley (Northampton Saints, Finborough)
Nick Lynagh (Harlequins, Hampton)
Isaac Mears (Bath, Beechen Cliff)
George Newman (Exeter Chiefs, Truro College)
Theo Povey (Harlequins, Gordon’s)
Aidan Pugh (Bath, Piggott)
Evan Russell (Bristol Bears, SGS College)
Tristan Saunders (Harlequins, Dulwich College)
Hugh Shields (Northampton Saints, Northampton SfB)
Asa Stewart-Harris (Saracens, St Albans)
Joe Taylor (Harlequins, Cranleigh)
James Townsend (Leicester Tigers, Warwick)
Declan Treacey (Bath, Beechen Cliff)
Sam Winters (Bath, Harrow)
Victor Worsnip (Bristol Bears, Clifton College)