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.

Attention - 5th September

Hello Everyone,

Hope everyone is well

The reason I am contacting all the former players and friends of Cumnock Rugby Club that I can think of is to see if I can organise a big get together for the first home league game of the season (either the 5^th or 12^th of September).

I decided to do this after 2 events which happened over the last year.

The first one was a sponsors day at the club when I was in the company of Jock Murdoch (these prawns are crunchy). There were a few old faces we hadn’t seen for a few years and we were both discussing how good it was to catch up. John suggested getting together the players from his time playing at Cumnock for a sponsored day at the club.

The second event was much sadder at Nan Murray’s funeral when loads of old faces turned up in really unfortunate circumstances. I was talking to Harry Reilly (now our Youth President) who suggested that we should try and get these ex players and members together on a more regular basis to catch up with each other and also to add something to the club.

It is sometimes only when you meet these old faces or look at old pictures that you remember what fantastic times we all had at CRFC over the years. The number of people that have passed through the club over the years is enormous and is always great to bump into them.

I have decided see if I can pull together a big reunion of all these old faces (your own included) for the first home game of the season. The idea is that we come together on a sponsors day catch up and also see the crop of really good young boys that are moving into our senior team this year.

I have spoken to Davie Murray (Ernie Bilko) about this and I am really pleased that he has agreed to be the compare for the event. I know giving Davie a microphone is a recipe for disaster but I honestly can’t think of anyone who represents the good times at Cumnock Rugby Club so well over the years.

As you know Davie has played rugby at Cumnock for over 50 years starting in the late fifties. He is the self confessed best kicker the club ever had and sacrificed an international career as a cabaret star to focus on captaining the Mean Machine.

In order to get as many people as possible to come along I would appreciate it if you would send this email on to any ex member or player that you know or send their details to me and I’ll contact them.

Also I am looking for old pictures relating to the club. If you have any could you scan them in and send them back to me.

I really hope that if I can pull this together it will be one of the best days we have ever had at the club. It will also show the new young players the number of people out there who are supporting their efforts.

Hope to see you all soon,

Thanks to Morton Houston for above post.

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