ACADEMY fly-half Tiff Eden stressed the importance of this year’s European Challenge Cup competition for youngsters to break into the senior squad.
The talented 22-year-old, who is a Worcester Cavaliers regular, is itching to use his experience from last year’s tournament to impress backs coach Sam Vesty and challenge for the number ten jersey in the first-team.
The Cheltenham-born youngster is also relishing the opportunity to square up against French outfit Brive on Saturday.
“The competition gives a lot of the younger guys who haven’t been playing a huge amount of rugby the opportunity to go out and show what they can do. We’re really looking forward to this year’s tournament,” said Eden.
“Russia was a totally new experience. We’d seen a little bit of footage of Enisei prior to the match. We knew they would be a big group who would be fairly direct. We never saw them as minnows as we knew how dangerous they can be at home.
“Moving forward we just need to focus on our own individual games and what we can to do well to exploit teams. We have to embrace the challenges ahead.
“I played in this tournament last year so I have a bit of experience. I enjoyed playing rugby overseas and hopefully, given the game time from Vesty, I can continue to show what I can do.
“It’s a good standard of rugby for the younger players. Brive are a quality side, so we’re really looking forward to testing ourselves against them home and away,” he added.
Josh Adams, Jamie Shillcock and Perry Humphreys have already broke into the first-team under head coach Carl Hogg this year and Eden knows the opportunity to step-up is there for the rest of the academy youngsters.
“There’s no doubt younger players are being given the opportunity to prove their worth in the first-team under Hogg. It adds a bit of extra motivation to all of us academy players who are on the fringes.
“It also shows academy players aren’t being ignored and there’s opportunities available if you’re performing well.
“We’re all really pleased for Shillcock, Humphreys and Adams. Every game I’ve seen them play, they’ve bought high energy and impressed.”