RFU run Wasps, Worcester and London Irish academies – this is how they do it

The traumatic reach of the collapse of three Premiership clubs last season extended beyond the devastating impact on the players, employees and supporters of Worcester, Wasps and London Irish.

The subsequent headlines understandably focused on the plight of those directly involved, but their dramatic demise also left the Rugby Football Union facing a less heralded crisis: what to do with the three academies attached to the clubs, encompassing a supply line of talent totalling around 2,000 young players?

The ultimate aim of the development pathway programmes, which begin at the under-14 age group, incorporated in each of the 14 academies across England, is to first develop players capable of playing for the Premiership side attached to them, and then to the senior national side.

Yet with only a small elite ever progressing to that level, the DPPs are also seen as critical to developing players with the skillset and commitment to enjoy their rugby within the community game.

The ramifications of the collapse of the three clubs, therefore threatened to run much deeper than the immediate impact for the professional game and left the RFU with little option but to step in and take central control to limit the damage for both the elite and grass-roots game.

Regulations under the existing professional game agreement between the RFU and the clubs ensure that players developed within the boundaries of each academy must progress to the Premiership club overseeing it.

So, in the dramatic days following the collapse of each club, the RFU faced not just the logistical challenge of taking control of each academy structure, but also determining how those players who were ready to move on to professional contracts would be allocated to Premiership clubs outside of their academies.

‘Some would have missed the opportunity to go to university’

If the demise of Worcester and Wasps in the first half of last season at least gave the governing body some breathing space to merge their respective academies into a new RFU Midlands academy, jointly supported by Premiership Rugby, last November, the collapse of London Irish in June left little time to restructure – and limit the impact to the players’ rugby and academic development.

“The most impacted were the Under-18 players who had signed contracts with Irish and they had to find new clubs,” said Don Barrell, the RFU’s head of performance programmes and pathways.

“Then there was the lower sixth school group, the under-17s, who would be looking to go into contracts next year. They were prioritised during this period to make sure that we were really on top of their needs.”

Conor O’Shea, the RFU’s executive director of performance, was also involved in discussions with the players and their parents to find solutions.

“Some parents reached out to us and we had conversations with them,” said O’Shea. “Because of the timing [of Irish’s collapse] some players would have missed out on the opportunity to go to universities such as Leeds, Manchester or Bristol because they were going to stay in London.

“We have had to give them a pathway for the next year almost like a gap year. We had to make sure the under-18 programme was in place immediately and then those within the programme returning this season were looked after. It is an exceptional patch given London Irish’s links to schools within the region. We had to make sure there were also the right facilities and, as ever with the rugby community, people came forward to offer us facilities to use.”

The RFU could at least draw on their experience of stepping in to take control of the Premiership academy that had been run by Yorkshire Carnegie in 2020, establishing a centrally run Yorkshire academy as its replacement.

‘It ensures players can stay, be educated and live on their local patch’

Where possible, staff were retained to provide continuity in the provision of training and development, and parents and players were reassured that they would not be disadvantaged by staying within their current academy, even if it no longer was attached to a Premiership club.

“We’ve had to quickly help people see that they still have every opportunity,” added Barrell. “So we’ve worked with Premiership Rugby to make some changes in regulations for those players in each of the programmes so they can basically move to another programme when they finish their time within the academy. If you look at Wasps/Worcester, I think we’ve got 10 people who’ve already been offered contracts when they step out of their upper-six year from those two patches. It is the same within Yorkshire.”

To prevent any illegal ‘raiding’ of the new academies, Premiership clubs must first register their interest with the RFU, and the academy manager will then speak to the player and their parents to ensure the process is transparent.

“When a player gets to their upper-sixth year, we allow them to start looking at engaging with other clubs and make an informed decision,” added Barrell. “It is controlled from the middle and is not underhand and ensures young players can stay, be educated and live on their local patch without any impact.

“I guess the only difference is they will need to move somewhere, but they have a lot more choice, compared to someone who’s staying on that local patch and doesn’t have qualifying criteria to join another Premiership club.

“We’ve had a few movements since January, only a few were people, and I completely understand. I think some of the parents just want the best for their kids and felt they would miss out.

“But we are working as hard as we can and can say we honestly don’t feel that you will. You’ll get the same staffing in terms of numbers, and we’ve tried to maintain as many of the same staff as we can, so there’s real consistency across programmes when we’ve taken them over. We’ve tried to just bring their staff across into any new set-up. So impact-wise, it’s been as low as we can make it.”