WORCESTER Warriors are set to launch six academy centres across the West Midlands as part of an ambitious plan to ‘harvest’ the region’s brightest young talent.
Current England internationals Matt Kvesic, Tom Wood and Dylan Hartley are just a selection of players which came through Warriors’ once-revered youth set-up.
But after growing frustrated at seeing their homegrown talent move to other Aviva Premiership sides to progress their careers, the club made the decision to close its academy.
However, director of rugby Dean Ryan made the youth system central to his plans when he arrived at Warriors last year and brought in Nick Johnston as high performance director to get the ball rolling.
The club has now set up centres at Broadstreet Rugby Club, Hereford Cathedral School, Luctonians Rugby Club, Telford College of Arts and Technology, Warwick School and a location in Birmingham.
The six centres are expected to be up and running by September and Ryan believed it was the right way to go to become a successful side in the future.
“When you look at Saracens, Leicester and Northampton it is very easy to spot the superstar players but they are also the market leaders at investing in the academy so we have got to make sure that we have got the systems in place to get things moving,” he said.
“We have got the biggest academy region in the country and probably the most productive, but we are not getting anything out of it because we have never run programmes within it.
“Around Coventry and Warwickshire has the highest percentage of players which have gone on to be successful.
“All we have been able to do is throw resources at a really tiny group that have come here as we have not had the staffing levels to reach further than that.”
And Ryan said Warriors were not afraid to move into areas which have been used as talent hotbeds by the likes of Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints.
“For too long Worcester has been a club which has been a stepping stone to go somewhere else so we want talented players wanting to play here,” he said.
“It is our region, so if anyone is in there at the moment then look out because in September we are going to be all over it building as many relationships as we can.
“Just think how many schools and how many clubs there are. If they start to access those resources and feel they are benefiting then think how many kids will start coming here.”
Meanwhile, Warriors have also bolstered the top end of their academy as they have added nine new faces to next season’s crop, including tight-head props Mike Daniels and Josh McNulty who will be joining the club from Loughborough University and Coventry respectively.
Hooker Jack Singleton will arrive from Saracens, while locks Christian Scotland-Williamson and Andrew Kitchener will also link up with Mark Hewitt’s side.
Flankers Sam Smith and Huw Taylor have continued their rise up the ranks to sign academy contracts along with full back Jon Hughes, while wing Perry Humphreys will make the move from Leicester Tigers.
The new arrivals will join up with current players Andrew Boyce, Jack Cosgrove, Elliott Davies, George de Cothi, Tiff Eden, Shay Kerry and Josh Watkins, who will all remain at Sixways next season.