The Panel (Sleepy Hollow)

The main part of the evening was a  Question and Answer session with the panel, and this was preceded by a general talk from Tony, who explained what the Academy is, and how it works. Actually,  I should probably say "Academies" as, like everything in Rugby administration, things are more complex than they might seem and at Quins we effectively have two! Confused? Well...

• firstly, Quins operate our own Academy developing younger players. This has run for many years, funded from the Club's own resources
• then in 2002 Quins were granted one of fourteen England Regional Rugby Academies. This is an RFU led and funded initiative, the other regional Academies being at the other ZP clubs (plus Bristol, minus Rotherham) and at Worcester and one in the South West. There is also an England National Academy to which promising players belong in addition to their Regional Academy..

To most intents and purposes, though, the distinction is immaterial as the Harlequins Academy runs as a single unit.

There are two teams - U19 and U21, but in addition many of the players play regularly in the Reserves, and a steady stream break into the first team. Members of the Academy that will be familiar to CAW from the first team squad would include Andy Reay, Ugo Monye, Chris Bell and  - just recently - Cameron Dott.  Those of you that watch Reserves games (or even if you only read AlanQuins match reports) will also be familiar with Henry Barratt, Tom Guest, Chris Cracknell, Max Evans and Adrian Jarvis among others.

In addition the Academy also runs the Elite Player Development Group - this is part of the England Regional Academy and is effectively a scouting operation finding and signing up boys who are (usually) still at school and not playing Rugby full time, but whom it is thought may have the potential to become international-class players. Boys join the EPDG as young as U15 and attend regular sessions at Quins in half term and holidays, and have a supervised season-round training programme.

Later in the evening Tom Allen described a typical week at the Academy, and from that, and from Tony's thought, one thing that cam through very clearly was how much was expected of the members, and how high is the aim. After their first year at Quins Academy members train with the first team, attending weights, skills training, video analysis and practice games, nutritional advice and have access to sports psychologists and specialist trainers. All this as well as - in some cases - continuing their education.  The operation is unashamedly elitist and aims to recruit, and produce international class players - and in that area we are doing very well at the moment with no fewer than five players in the U21 RWC line up last summer

Quinssa Listening.. (kwin)

The Q&A session was lively, and the range of questions was wide. We discussed:  how early boys would benefit from weight training techniques (perhaps 12), whether Academy members get drug-tested (yes, by the Sports Council, but Tom and Ben noted that so far this had only happened at representative level), a description of a typical week at the club (busy), and advice on dietary self-control (much appreciated by a number of the audience, I am sure).  Insights into life as an Academy member included what the boys eat and drink, who they share their flats with, and whether any of the panel spent much time reading any Unofficial Quins' Websites at all.  ("No"; "Err, No"; "No" and "No" sums it up pretty accurately, and your correspondent decided not to break cover after all). Kevin will be interested to know that we also discussed the independent - state school mix and what measures the Academy can take to recruit from the widest possible base, and Tom and Ben spoke and provided some insight into how they got to join the Academy and where they might end up..  .

Above all what came through to me was the professionalism, elitism and high aims of the Academy and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting evening - and very pleasing  to see a healthy turnout (over 30) for a midweek event of this sort; a very promising start for similar events by Quinssa.   More information on the Academy can be found on the Official Site. Quinssa can be found at www.quinssa.org.uk

Finally a very warm thanks for Tom, Ben, Colin and Tony for turning out on a cold evening for our benefit. It was much appreciated.

The Panel (kwin)

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

Harlequins Poll