The Elite Player Development Groups are a joint venture between Leicester Tigers and England Rugby.

The Leicester Tigers England Rugby Academy has responsibility for developing potential England players in a geographical district that covers Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and Norfolk.

The RFU and Leicester Tigers, in cooperation with the Constituent Bodies (CBs), have worked diligently towards the building of 2 new programmes for young players. The first is called the School Of Rugby and the second called the Elite Player Development Group or EPDG. This section has been designed to help the parent’s, players and their families to understand a little better the process in which they are immersed and maybe clarify some misconceptions along the way.

From 2002 – 2006, the RFU and Leicester Tigers worked closely together to look at the development of core rugby skills. To quote Nigel Redman, who is the present England U-20s coach,

‘From a coaching perspective, the importance of developing player’s core skills cannot be overstated. ......often what makes (elite) players stand out is the quality of their core skills and their understanding of how and these can and should be used.’

Over the course of those four years, it began to emerge that the influences of core skills development needed to be encouraged to a wider audience than the system presently held. Therefore, in 2006, the RFU invited senior figures in the game both at grass roots and elite level to brainstorm their ideas on how player development needed to be progressed to achieve success at every level of the English game. From those meetings came the programme in which you are involved today (Further information can be found by clicking here.)

 Up to 2007 / 8, the elite programme within a CB was the county side. Although the elite players will now be coached within the Schools of Rugby (SoR), for those not training in a SoR there will be an opportunity to play for your county which will play challenge matches against other county squads of similar standard. It is hoped that these county squads will work hand in hand with the CB Schools of Rugby remit of identifying players with potential.  For players who have progressed through their club and schools programmes, primary entry, unless under exceptional circumstances, will start with an invitation into the county squad..

The Schools of Rugby (SoR) are the new elite programme for county standard players and those selected will not be eligible for playing in the county matches. Unlike the previous county squad system, the SoR is not a team. The invitation to attend the SoR centre is based on potential in each playing position. Potential means does that player show the coaches something that could be worked on for possible progress towards selection in later years with CB, Leicester Tigers and Team England - not necessarily at the present time. It is quite conceivable that there maybe three hookers and five scrum half’s but their selection, although competitive, is not based on selection into a team. This comes later when the CB choose their SoR squads for a variety of challenging games....more of this later

Sitting above the Schools of Rugby are the Elite Player Development Groups or EPDGs. Whereas the Schools of Rugby come together once a month, the EPDGs will meet twice a month and a further session devoted to Staff review / goal setting / reporting to parents and/or coaches. With the SoR also taking up a fourth night per month, that leaves time for the players to work within a judo programme and of course utilise the evenings effectively in other ways such as succeeding at their academic education ambitions along with their rugby ones. At Leicester Tigers, we insist that this balance must be met on all sides equally and not rugby at the expense of your school work.

All players within the EPDG will also be assigned a place in their nearest geographical School of Rugby. On the nights when the School of Rugby meet, the players from the EPDG will parachute back into their SoR in order to forge an EPDG / SoR link. It will also aid the EPDG coaches with their future Talent Identification (TID) responsibilities.

My role as Talent Development Coordinator is simply to ensure that all of the EPDG programmes run to RFU and Leicester Tigers guidelines. By synchronising all of the activities across the six counties, it is hoped that the players in our care are given the very best opportunities to grow as performers within the English game at all levels.

The RFU Structured Season

Every year, the RFU release a guideline calendar which is designed to aid player recovery and development towards the future success of the English game. In simple terms, there are certain days set aside for important RFU dates. For example, it would not be fair on a club for example to have a very important cup game on the same day as a county match as conceivably, some of their better performers may not be available to them. It is therefore essential for all key personnel involved in the youth game to ensure that these guidelines are followed as closely as possible.

The SoR and EPDG programmes take place on the same evenings every month / week as per the agreed RFU season. Although it is difficult to judge overall, if all parties (school, club, CB, Leicester Tigers and the RFU) all follow the guidance set down in the Structured Season Document, then there should be no clashes in a player’s diary. This allows them a chance to recover and give the requisite amount of time to the very important areas of his life such as education and social evenings with his family/peers.

In any given week, there should be only 1 CB activity. Attending an EPDG or a SoR meets this one activity however, there are dates set down when this changes slightly.

CB Squad Sessions

Integrated into the RFU Structured Season are several dates which are set aside for inter- CB matches. Within the structured season, three dates have been set aside for U-16 and two dates for U-15. These dates are the only known dates where the u-16s and U-15s are scheduled not to attend the EPDG. Any further dates added should not need to be attended by the EPDG players as they fall outside of the structured season unless there is further guidance given by the Leicester Tigers Academy and the Rugby Football Union. To allow players to prepare for CB matches, the EPDG programme has been instructed to release all players for these weeks to prevent any additional pressures on the players in our care.

Our EPDGs are located as follows: