SCOTTISH NATIONAL ACADEMY UPDATE

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SCOTLAND UNDER-18 TRAINING SQUAD NAMED
Monday, 07 September 2009

Scotland under-18 head coach, Grant McKelvey, today announced an initial training squad of 34 players ahead of the 2009 / 2010 season.

The training squad was selected after a performance review of the players who spent a fortnight in Valladolid, Spain, on a strength, conditioning and rugby camp in July, and those invited to attend the national rugby camp at Struan, Perthshire in August.

McKelvey, said: “After working with the players in Valladolid and Struan these sessions present an excellent opportunity for us to compare and contrast the players while measuring the development of those who have been in the under-17 programme.

“For the majority this won’t present a new beginning in a new side. The sessions continue on from the work done in the under-17 sessions and the two camps – it’s a continuous development process rather than starting afresh.

“There are, of course, many other opportunities for players to gain selection into this squad. The Performance Development team will be watching a lot of rugby in Scotland as well as travelling to and gaining recommendations from our counterparts in the Exiles Performance Programme in England.”

Players will be continually assessed throughout the season before the final selection of the national under-18 Squad for the 6 Nations International Festival due to take place in Wales in April 2010.

SCOTLAND U18 TRAINING SQUAD – SEPTEMBER SESSIONS 2009

- FORWARDS -

Props
Robin Hislop (Hawick Wanderers) **
Gavin Robertson (Earlston High School /Melrose Wasps)
Alex Allen (Sedbergh School)
Struan Cessford (Dundee High Rugby)
Jo Wasinski (Hampton School)
Craig Davidson (Ayr)

Hookers
Jack McFarlane (Gourock High School / Greenock Wanderers)
George Turner (Stewart’s Melville College)
Ryan Hood (Strathallan)
Fergus Scott (Currie)

Second-rows
Fraser Wem (Hampton School / London Wasps)
Craig Ferguson (East Kilbride)
George Barnes (Chesterfield)

Back-row
Mitch Eadie (Filton College)
Malcolm Peathingy (George Watson’s College)
Andrew Nagle (Jed Thistle)
Jamie Swanson (Glasgow Academy)*
Adam de ste Criox (Firhill High School / Boroughmuir)
Lawrie Seydak (Edinburgh Academy)

- BACKS -

Scrum-halves
Murray McConnell (Lenzie Academy / West of Scotland RFC)*
Jonny Adams (Aberdeen Grammar)
James Munro (Edinburgh Academy)

Stand-offs
Fraser Gillies (Edinburgh Academy)
Finn Russell (Stirling County)

Centres
Jack Bradford (Worksop College)
Michael Crawley (Stewart’s Melville College)
Mark Bennett (Cumnock) *
Stewart Hogg (Heriot’s) **
Jack Ferguson (George Watson’s College)

Back three
Murray Beckwith (Marr College)*
Harris Jones (Merchiston Castle School)*
Aiden McCall-Haden (St Aloysius College)
Ross Inglis (Calderside Acadademy / Hamilton)
Ben Francis (Epsom College)

* Member of National Academy supported by AIS (Area Institute of Sport)
** Member of National Academy supported by Scottish Rugby

• The first two Scotland sessions will take place on Sunday 6 and Sunday 13 September.

Cumnock chatboard link

Scotland Under 17 Squad set to train in Spain

Cumnock Chatboard thread

As part of their development to U18 age grade level, a squad of 30 Scotland U17 team members will set off for Valladolid
in north-central Spain tomorrow (2 July).

The players, management and support staff will spend an intensive fortnight at the camp where the focus is on technical,
tactical, mental and physical (strength and conditioning) training.

An 8am start each day for physio and gym work, an enforced rest in the middle of the day given the climate, then training again at 6pm,says Bryan Easson, Scotland U17 Head Coach.

Added to that there are unit sessions, group sessions and one-on-one goal setting sessions with the coaches an intensive programme, designed to teach the players how to be professional athletes and to give the coaches an all-round idea of the players.

The camp led by Scotland U18 Head Coach, Grant McKelvey, with strength and conditioning from Val Houston acts as the transformation period for the young players from the U17 to U18 development side, where they will move into the hands the U18 coaching team following a further assessment camp in September.

This is the third year that Scotland under-17 squad has benefited from the facilities at Valladolid. The 30-strong squad includes 12 players new to the group due to injury, unavailability and deselection since their successful participation at this year Millfield Festival. The camp is run through Cumbernauld College with funding from the European Community programme, the
Leonardo da Vinci Trust (the criteria of which prohibits team travel within a teams own country).
Catch up with the Valladolid training regime via a players blog on the Scotland U17 web site.

Scotland U17 Development Squad
Robin Hislop (Hawick Wanderers) Prop
Gavin Robertson (Earlston HS / Melrose) Prop
Alex Allan (Sedbergh School) Prop
Struan Cessford (High School of Dundee) Prop
Jack MacFarlane (Gourock HS / Greenock Wanderers) Hooker
Ryan Hood (Strathallan) Hooker
George Turner (Stewart’s Melville College) Hooker
Fraser Wem (Hampton School / Wasps) Second row
Craig Ferguson (East Kilbride) Second Row
Sean McDevitt (High School of Glasgow) Second Row
George Barnes (Chesterfield) Second Row
Mitchell Eadie (Filton College) Back Row
Malcolm Peathingy (George Watson's College) Back Row
Matthew Walker (Boroughmuir) Back Row
Andrew Nagle (Jed Thistle) Back Row
Adam de ste Croix (Boroughmuir) Back Row
Murray McConnell (Lenzie Academy / West of Scotland) Scrum Half
Johnny Adams (Aberdeen Grammar School) Scrum Half
James Munro (Edinburgh Academy) Scrum Half
Fraser Gillies (Edinburgh Academy) Stand Off
Jack Bradford (Worksop College) Centre
Michael Crawley (Stewart’s Melville College) Centre
Murray Beckwith (Marr College) Centre
Mark Bennett (Cumnock RFC) Centre
Jamie Urquhart (Dollar Academy) Centre
Stewart Hogg (Hawick Wanderers) Centre
Douglas Day (Paviours RFC) Centre
Harris Jones (Robert Gordon’s College) Back 3
Aidan McCall Hagan (St Aloysius’ College) Back 3
Ross Inglis (Calderside Academy / Hamilton) Back 3

Scotsman article from 1st July:-

Scotsman article link

Public school system provides bulk of Scots under-17 squad


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Published Date: 02 July 2009
A 30-STRONG Scotland Under-17 squad will fly out today for a two-week training camp in Spain.
A glance in the brackets after the names of those selected reveals Scottish youth rugby remains reliant on the public school base, with more than half of the squad coming from that system, but only four players come from another traditional heartland – the Borders.

There are 16 players from private schools – 11 Scottish and five English. Of the rest, six come from state schools and eight from clubs. The regional breakdown is pretty even with Borders (4), Glasgow (8), Edinburgh (7), Caledonia (5) and England (6).

The players, management and support staff will spend an intensive fortnight at the camp in Valladolid, north-central Spain. The focus will be on technical, tactical, mental and physical strength and conditioning. The camp, led by Under-18 coach Grant McKelvey, acts as the transformation period for the youngsters from U17 to the U18 development side.

Uddingston tournament with Cumnocks p5 & p7 AND primary 3/4s

Primary 3/4

Cumnock Primary 3 &4 Uddingston Tournament Report

Uddingston Lions 4 Cumnock 3

Cumnock kicked off their tournament against one of the two entries from the home side. Uddingston had taken 10 tries off the Cumnock side only a few weeks ago and would have expected another comfortable win.

However, this was without considering the considerable fighting spirit that this team discovered today and this game developed into an enthralling affair with some rugby played by both teams.
Cumnock’s standouts in this game were Ross Watson who made some heroic try saving tackles as well as try-scorers Owen Young (2) and Alex Houston.

Uddingston Tigers 4 Cumnock 2

It is perhaps a mark of how impressive the team’s first performance had been that the coaches were left slightly disappointed that this game got away from them.
Uddingston Tigers were the eventual winners of this competition but they were lucky in some respects that Cumnock let them run in a few tries virtually unopposed while Cumnock narrowly missing out on a couple of scores with both Austin McBirnie and Alex Houston both bundled into touch just short of the line.
Both of Cumnock’s tries were scored by the outcasting Owen Young who finished off good team moves with typically jinking runs as well as making some crunching tackles.

Cumnock 4 Waysiders 3

Cumnock came flying out of the blocks for this match with alex Houston breaking straight from the kick off before slipping the scoring pass to Owen Young.
This set the tune for the match with Cumnock finally putting in the kind of team performance that they threatening to produce for several weeks.
Cumnock’s defence in particular was outstanding with thumping tackles from Rob Drummond causing spilt ball that the side’s dangerous running could benefit from.
Cumnock seemed completely in control with further scores from owen young and Austin McBirnie. However Cumnock looked set to blow it when they allowed waysiders to sneak a couple of quick scores and level the scores.
However, the fighting spirit that the side had shown all day came to the fore once more again on the lastb play of the game when McBirnie broke from behind his own line, beat most of the wayside’s team before being caught just short of the line. The ever present Young was on hold to receive the pass and cross to claim a richly deserved victory.

Cumnock 2 East Kilbride 5

Cumnock started well against a much larger East Kilbride team with Austin McBirnie using his pace well to score in the corner after a looping run.
East Kilbride answered with score of their own before Owen Young finished off his prolific day with his eighth try.
However their busy day suddenly caught up with the primary 3 & 4s and East Kilbride were able to use their size advantage to run in four more tries without answer.
Overall this was a very positive day for the p3 & 4s with several outstanding individual performances. However, it is the team that counts and this is a side that is starting to gel and work together which bodes well for their two remaining tournaments.


Primary 5s

The team played 5 hard games of rugby during a long day at Uddingston tournament.

Cumnock 8 Uddingston 8

The team got off to a poor start against the hosts and were trailing 5-2 at half time, but the team put in a great performance in the second half and ended up with a draw.

Cumnock 2 East Kilbride 7

This was a hard game against the eventual winners of the tournament. The end result not really reflecting the passage of play. Missed tackles and poor support play losing the team this game.

Cumnock 7 Helensburgh 8

Another smashing performance from the team in this game. Helensburgh running in 2 late tries to deny Cumnock a victory.

Cumnock 6 Waysiders 2

A well deserved victory in this game with another thrilling performance from the team. Putting up a strong defence and running in some well worked tries.

Cumnock 5 Strathaven 5

The last game of the day was a real spectacle with both teams giving their all to provide a thriller for the spectators.

The Cumnock team today were Calum Bell, John Watt, Jack McSeveney, Sean Houston, Tyler Wallace and Lucy Watt. Tries coming from Calum, Sean, Jack and John

Primary 5 chatboard topic

Report for P7 Team

Strathaven 3 Cumnock 0

Cumnock opened well, pressing their opponents from the start. Only poor ball retention at the breakdown and a few missed tackles allowed Strathaven in to score. This was a much better performance by Cumnock and the scoreline flattered their opponents.

East Kilbride 4 Cumnock 2

Cumnock started lively enough with a fine team effort allowing Connor McSevenney in at the orner. However the powerfull running and supprt play from their bigger opponents soon started to tell and East Kilbride replied with two fine tries. Cumnock took the play to their opponents in the second half but it was always a chasing game and the outcome wasn't in doubt despite a try from Zack North.

Uddingston 3 Cumnock 2

This was the best game of the day and again Cumnock started well with an early try from Aiden Kerr. Both teams passed and tackled well and the crowd were treated to a fine dsplay of rugby. Cumnock's other try came from Cameron McGuire but injuries started to take their toll and in the end Uddingston managed to sneak a win.

Cumnock 5 Waysiders 4

Cumnock were playing for pride in this game and played to their strengths. At last the backs moved the ball wide and utilised their pace in the wide open spaces. In fact the Cumnock score should have been higher but poor retention of the ball in the tackle and poor decision making by the ball carrier , often cutting back inside and ignoring the over-laps outside him kept the game tight until the final whistle. Scores came from A Davidson, A Harkiss, E Hendry, A Kerr and J Reilly.

Over all the performance was good from the Cumnock players, in particular the forwards gelled well and provided a good platform for the backs. The Players Player of the Day was Rachel Shankland who had some great runs with the ball and tackled fiercely on the wing.

The other players on the day were C McKenzie, S Faulds, G Aitken, T Dowds and R McLaren

Primary 7 chatboard topic

East Kilbride mini/midi reports Sunday 22nd February

P4
Cumnock visited East Kilbride today for 2 thrilling and hard fought games. The team played very well in both games improving as the day went on but were unfortunate to lose both games. The try scorers today were Alex Houston and Calum Bell, support play coming from Kory Galloway, Austin McBirnie, Lucy Watt and Adam Watt.

P5
The P5 boys put in 2 great performances today narrowly losing their first game 4-3. After a short break the boys came out firing on all cylinders blowing their opposition away with a 5-3 victory in the second game. Tries coming from Sean Houston, Scott Teece, Calm Park and Calum Bell ably assisted by Jack McSeveney, John Watt and Tyler Wallace

Cumnock P7 Report

East Kilbride 13 Cumnock 5

Cumnock travelled to an indoor astru-turf pitch at Hamilton Palace to play East Kilbride. The facility was excellent, with conditions obviously excellent for playing rugby. However, the pitch as set-out was very narrow, not much different to the training pitch at Cumnock Academy . This meant that there was not enough width for Cumnock to play to their strengths, getting quick ball out wide and running into the corners. The pitch suited the East Kilbride style of play with the ball kept tight with their large pack and only moving wide once Cumnock players had been sucked into any rucks or mauls.

The Cumnock tries from G Aitken, Z North (2) and J Reilly (2) came from some good passages of play with the ball moving about quickly through various sets of hands.

The coaches were disappointed with the way some players didn't get involved at the breakdowns despite spending weeks practising rucking and mauling. Too many players were content to stand back and see what happened rather than competing for the ball. On the positive side, the half backs and centres were linking up well with good positive runing and tackling from Kerr, Reilly, Aitken and North. This was the first defeat since before Christmas and hopefully it will be a wake-up call for some of the players

mini section are training next Sunday times tba