England Squad for U18's Tour of Australia picked

Full link here http://www.rfu.co.uk/News/2011/August/News%20Articles/080711_U18_Squad_Aus.aspx

The squad is up for the 3 match tour of Australia, where they'll be playing an U19 New South Wales Academy team on August 21, before facing Australian A Schools on August 24. Their final match will be a full Test match against Australian Schools on August 28.

Interestingly they'll be aclimatising prior to traveling out there by sleeping through the afternoon and then playing early morning “We’re there for two weeks and will play three games. The first one is just five days after we arrive so it’s important for the lads to acclimatise. We’ll meet up at Twickenham and go straight to bed in the afternoon and wake up at midnight ready to train at 1am to prepare ourselves.”


Forwards

Dominic Barrow (Prince Henry’s Grammar & Leeds Carnegie)
Joe Buckle (Bryanston & Bath Rugby)
Jack Clifford (RGS Guildford & Harlequins)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Truro College & Exeter Rugby)
Matt Hankin (Haileybury College & Saracens)
George Sandford (St Paul’s Catholic College & London Irish)
Danny Herriott (Moulton College & Northampton Saints)
Tom Jubb (Oaklands College & Saracens)
Max Crumpton (Oaklands College & Saracens)
Tom Price (Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth 1st & Leicester Tigers)
Kyle Sinckler (Epsom College & Harlequins)
David Sisi (St Paul’s Catholic College & London Irish)
Tom Smallbone (Harrow & London Irish)
Scott Spurling (Harrow & Saracens)

Backs

Jack Arnott (Ivybridge College & Exeter Chiefs)
Alex Day (St Joseph’s College & Northampton Saints)
Sam Hill (Ivybridge College & Exeter Chiefs)
Will Robinson (Twyford College & London Wasps)
Mark Jennings (Myerscough College & Sale Sharks)
Sam Jones (Ivybridge College & Exeter Chiefs)
James Lightfoot-Brown (St Paul’s Catholic College & London Irish)
Jack Nowell (Truro College & Exeter Chiefs)
Henry Slade (Plymouth College & Exeter Chiefs)
Tom Stephenson (Moulton College & Northampton Saints)
Anthony Watson (St George’s College & London Irish)
Marcus Webber (Manchester Grammar & Leeds Carnegie)

Good luck to the boys.

Strongest academy representation at 6 players for Exe - delighted to see the talent that we've got coming thru, just hope to god we can hold on to it

Sign them on to 10 year contracts asbo, that will keep them routed.

Good to see plenty of players from Exeter, seems LI and Saints have a fair few talented youngsters also.

Interesting to see the breakdown of young talent. 26 in the squad.

Exeter - 6
London Irish - 5
Saracens - 4
Saints - 3
Leeds - 2
Harlequins - 2
Leicester - 1
Bath - 1
Wasps - 1
Sale - 1

None from Newcastle is interesting in particular.

Makes sense, Newcastle are well known for their poor academy and systematic failure to bring on young talent, it's why other clubs have to take their youngsters from them, much like social services.

A sort of care in the community project thingy?!

I know Tigers have taken one of their 17 year olds in the first team squad for pre season and I presume that's why the very promising Harry Wells isn't included. Then again Tigers academy players have been noticeable by their absence recently with only a handful making into these squads.

Exactly, it's for their own good.

Tigers, Bath and Gloucester need to up their contributions. As three of the bigger clubs in England only contributing 2 players out of 26 between them is pretty poor.

Newcastle and Worcester are the other sides who contribute nothing. The west would be in serious trouble if it wasn't for the fine efforts of Exeter. Good to see Saints finally starting to produce players.

Very good news for Exeter this. Colleges like Ivybridge have been a hotbed of young rugby players for a while, so hopefully with the new regional academy system, Exe should get a constant stream of very good youngsters coming through.

Out of interest, how would things change if the Pirates got promoted? Would it just be either side of the Tamar or would the RFU stick with the academies they have?

I would imagine that they would stick with the academies as they are, as much for funding reasons as anything else, but you never know!