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Criticism mounting after RFU decision shuts famed academy that produced likes of Danny Care
Former England lock Tom Palmer has branded the Rugby Football Union’s decision to axe the Yorkshire rugby academy as “shocking”, ending a system that gave Stuart Lancaster his first coaching opportunity and delivered Danny Care, Luther Burrell and Rob Webber on to the Test scene.
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Palmer won 42 England caps in a career that started as a teenager with Leeds when the club were operating at the top of the English game.
The lock went onto to play for Wasps, Stade Francais and Gloucester and is now defence coach at Rouen in the French second tier of professional rugby alongside head coach Richard Hill, the former England captain.
Palmer said: “It is shocking. Yorkshire is the biggest rugby-playing county and needs to have some kind of academy. It really took off when Stuart Lancaster was in charge and an audit showed Leeds had one of the highest number of graduates in the Premiership.”
Wasps back row forward Alex Rieder tweeted his anger at the decision to abandon the academy: “An absolute joke. I gained my opportunity to pursue a dream through Leeds academy. Yorkshire is a hub of talent and has some of the highest calibre of young talent in the country. If you want to sabotage/isolate the development of English rugby then congratulations, job well done.”
Another major blow for the sport in that region https://t.co/ClIaMKHtCh
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 15, 2020
Conor O’Shea, the RFU’s director of performance, insisted that a funding model had been agreed pre-pandemic to maintain the academy programme in conjunction with a new partner as Yorkshire Carnegie could no longer fund it, but that proposal fell through.
Carnegie’s relegation from the Championship triggered a crisis and it now means no academy system exists in Yorkshire which has a bigger population than New Zealand and Ireland.
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Lancaster, the ex-England head coach who is now with Leinster, was crucial to the early success of the academy and his own son Daniel is a product of the system, making his first-team debut for Carnegie last season. O’Shea is aware of the mounting anger in Yorkshire which has supplied 124 players to England and boasts 120 junior clubs.
O’Shea told RugbyPass that a short-term plan was being put in place to ensure talented young players remained on the correct pathway and that a long-term solution to deliver a viable academy in Yorkshire was being examined. This may not be based in Leeds and would also involve satellite facilities to recognise the long distances some players face to take part.
The RFU licence which enabled the Yorkshire academy to receive central funding of around £350,000 ended on June 13 and budgets for the union’s academy system will be cut in line with reductions being made in all areas.
O’Shea said: “In the longer term it is about having a focal point in Yorkshire and we had a very clear direction but that has had to be put on the back burner. Across the Gallagher Premiership, it is going to be challenging in terms of the academy funding which is linked to the revenue which is going down this year.
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“We have to work smart this year and every academy will get the same level of investment. For Yorkshire, we have to ensure coach development, player identification and development and if we can tick those three boxes in the short-term we will be able to establish the programme that needs to be there.
“Yorkshire was a hot-bed of players and we know how many good players will continue to come from the county. I feel for people in the short-term but hopefully they are comforted by the fact we are trying to re-establish it as it was. I have no doubt it will be again.”
'There were times when I was in the car with the rugby coach and players would be phoning in saying they couldn’t do anymore because it was affecting their actual work life.' @Tom_Varndell talks to @heagneyl ???https://t.co/oKkSFnhHom
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 19, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
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