The boy’s pathway is governed by the Professional Game Partnership and involves the RFU and Premiership Rugby working closely together. The responsibility for player development has been given to the Premiership academy system so it aligns to the top of the pyramid and ultimately the Premiership. The purpose of each academy is to produce players for the Premiership and England.
The Under 15 to Under 18 Age Grade Pathway comprises of two distinct phases, Foundation and Development.
The Boys PDG foundation phase is the first entry level point to the pathway and will include U15 and U16 age groups. It replaces what was previously known as DPP.
Clubs will be tasked with running regionally based sessions, to minimise travel time, throughout the season focusing on identifying players with potential and developing the skills and traits of these players. Sessions will be delivered by a mixture of full-time Academy staff and identified part-time coaches and will develop the athletic skills as well as the core rugby skills.
A national curriculum is being created that will highlight the desired session focuses and the key outputs for each age and stage of development.
Playing opportunities for the U15 groups will be limited to internal games and festivals that allows each programme to run something bespoke for their players. At U16 levels these internal opportunities will continue with some external games and festivals added in.
To access the Foundation Phase players are usually nominated through their club or school to the relevant academy. Each academy will organise a series of events that allow the player to showcase their skills following which players will be informed if they are invited into the programme. Remember, development is non-linear, and players thrive at different points as such programmes will accept previous, and new nominations at various times during the season, the aim is to have multiple entry and exit points throughout the phase.
The Boys PDG development phase follows on from the foundation phase and will include U17 and U18 age groups.
Clubs may still run multiple player groups at different venues but there will be a smaller group of players involved at this phase than previously. The focus will remain on identifying and developing players. Sessions will still be driven by the newly created national curriculum and will be delivered by full-time and sessional academy coaching staff.
The playing opportunities for this phase will fall into two distinct periods of the year. The first being in and around pre-season and then secondly post-Christmas, these will all be clearly articulated in the Age-grade Calendar. There will also be an academy league that is run annually for the U18 age group.
Selection for the development phase will usually come from participation in the relevant foundation phase and not normally via open trials, however there will still be opportunities for players to join at a variety of stages if they are thought to show the potential required at the later phases.
