The Championship club that can boast a total of 10 ex-players in current Six Nations squads
Three former Hartpury academy products have been named in Six Nations squads, bringing to ten the number of past players competing for a starting spot in the Guinness Six Nations Championship.
Louis Rees-Zammit, Alex Craig and Billy Burns are set to become the latest Hartpury alumni to play international rugby. Louis has been named in the 35-man Wales squad for the first time, while Alex and Billy were called up to the Scotland and Ireland squads respectively, ahead of the start of the Six Nations on Saturday.
All three players studied a Level 3 Extended Diploma Sport (Performance and Excellence) Rugby as well as being members of the Junior Rugby Academy at Hartpury. The rugby pathway at Hartpury – a RFU University Partner – means that alongside their studies, students can play for Hartpury College, then Hartpury University and its Championship club Hartpury University RFC.
More than 200 Hartpury alumni have played international rugby or signed professional contracts around the world. Wayne Thompson, Manager of the Junior Rugby Academy at Hartpury, said: “I think Hartpury is unique in the sense that we’ve got a platform for college rugby, university rugby and Championship rugby all on one site.
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As well as Louis, Alex and Billy, Hartpury alumni with more experience on the international stage have been named in the Six Nations squads – Ross Moriarty (Wales), Jonny May and Ellis Genge (both England), and Seb Negri and Callum Braley (Italy).
Former Hartpury University RFC players Adam Hastings (Scotland) and Jake Polledri (Italy) have also been named in their respective Six Nations squads.
Having worked with them all, Wayne said he was delighted that Louis, Alex and Billy now had an opportunity to join the illustrious roll of honour of Hartpury alumni by playing international rugby.
Still only 18, Louis has recently signed a long-term deal at Gloucester after becoming the club’s youngest ever Premiership player, its youngest ever player in a European match, the youngest player ever to score a hat-trick in the Premiership, and winning the December award for Premiership player of the month.
“Louis is one of those players that was able to step up reasonably quickly into the senior game through his speed and athleticism when he came here at 16,” said Wayne.
“I don’t think it’s any surprise what he has achieved at Gloucester, but the fact he has achieved it so quickly has caught a few people by surprise.
“A lot of that is down to opportunity – to potentially play AASE rugby for Hartpury, being involved with an academy such as Gloucester, and selection for the Gloucester first team due to injuries to other players.
“He has taken those opportunities and done extremely well.
“Alex is a prime example of someone really benefiting from our rugby pathway, spending two years in our Under-18 Academy, playing for the BUCS team, and being signed to the Academy at Gloucester having learned his trade within our system.
“Then he played a full season in the Championship, so he found that next level, then stepped into the Premiership.
“Billy played for our under-18s side and signed to Gloucester Academy but used our Saturday side as a means to develop, before pushing on.
“Our pathway is about pushing players to the best of their ability. For some, that is going to be international rugby, for others that is about being a very good Championship player.
“But it’s about doing the best by our players, off the pitch as well as on it through our dual career pathway.”
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“We have a fluid pathway for players to progress, alongside links with Premiership academies and regional academies in Wales.
“So in terms of placing players at the right level at the right time, I think that’s why you see so many players progress into professional rugby from Hartpury, be it through the whole of our pathway or finding exit routes at different points.
“What also helps set Hartpury apart is the access that our students have to outstanding facilities and specialist coaches.
“Those specialist coaches cross over from our college programme to our university programme, and university to our Championship side, so you get reference to the same coaches all the way through.
“It means you can receive a five-year development pathway while being in education and graduate from the Hartpury model with, hopefully, a career in rugby alongside a degree.
“Providing students with access to the dual career pathway is a really important part of what we do.
“The Rugby Players Association are now pushing it and I think more players at 16 to 18 are realising that they should get something behind them in terms of academic qualifications.
“What we also do well at Hartpury is trying to be as flexible as possible with the degree, diploma and A-level courses that students can do, so they can combine different subject areas, such as agriculture, with their rugby.
“It means our students can fully capture a broad range of academic disciplines, which they may not be able to do elsewhere.
“People recognise that Hartpury is a great educational establishment alongside rugby and that’s a really big draw.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe 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!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 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.
26 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.
26 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 comments