OFFICIAL: Syd is one of the best rugby players in the country!

Brilliant news - our own Sydney Gregson has been selected for the national U15 Talent Development Group, as well as the Hertfordshire Talented Athlete Programme.

Or, to cut through all this jargon, this means that Syd is - officially - one the best 30 or so rugby players in the country in the U15 age group. She is also the first ever "home grown" Letchworth player ever to reach these heights (Hayley Guilder and Jess Robinson were called up for trials, and Sasha Acheson was first selected for the TDGs while playing for another club).

As a result Syd will have a busy summer of training and development from some of the country's top coaches, followed by a year of fitness support from the top sports scientists at the University of Hertfordshire.

It also means that - assuming she carries on playing beyond junior rugby - Syd is well on the way to an England cap one day. A quick look at a few TDG squads from past years seems to show that maybe 20% of players go on to play for at least the national U20 team (its a bit early yet to say how many get full caps).

England's top U18s

After yesterday's U20 announcement, today it was the turn of the U18s who will be part of the new Talent Development Group (there will be no U15 group this season, due to the reorganisation). The names can be found on the RFUW website. No-one from Letchworth, but its still worth looking at as it is really interesting to see the geographic spread of players.

16 of the 32 girls come from six clubs, and five are from one club - London Irish (a fact that will result in the odd comment or two I suspect). In addition Aylesbury produce three, while Gloucester, H3, Newquay and Welwyn provide two each - but that does mean that 22 clubs are represented, which is (without checking) pretty good. The appearance of a few clubs that are not normally high on the list of "big names" is also good to see - Furness (Cumbria), Malton & Norton (Yorks.), and Tavistock (Devon) for instance - but most of the clubs are familiar names and chances are that anyone who played for our U18s last year will have played against most of the girls on this list.

This season the route into the TDGs will be via the new divisions, instead of the old regions. It will be interesting to see whether this results in any change to the range of clubs getting girls into the highest level of junior rugby.

RFUW TDG XV complete junior double

My thanks to a Welsh reader who has provided some detail about the TDG game that preceded yesterday's U20 international:

"The English TDG side won 30-7 over the Welsh TDG. England had the use of the elements in the first half and took full advantage to ease out to a 25-0 half-time lead. The second half was much more competitive - the Welsh fullback scored a fine solo try and a few other chances weren't taken to make the final scoreline closer.

From a Welsh (non-official) viewpoint the fixture was extremely worthwhile and hopefully the TDG process will continue for the future. This was the first group to be selected and the process of bringing that group together was only started a fortnight ago-and finished over the weekend prior to the game." 

If the Welsh TDG system has only been running for a few weeks, that is a pretty impressive performance against a  squad that has been together since September. It would indeed make a bit of sense - and provide some extra focus - if the TDG system could build to an annual climax, such as a game against Wales. It could only benefit future internationals to have a taste of what is to come. Indeed it would make even more sense if we could call the squad England U18s (like the boys do), but one step at a time maybe...

The team that dare not speak its name

Since this blog began it has been reported to me that at times its contents have, on occasion, perplexed or even annoyed some people at the top of RFUW. This, obviously, has not been the intention but the fact is that the Powers That Be have, in fact, never actually contacted me - directly - to complain, comment or correct anything. So such concerns can never have been major

Well, that is not entirely true. They did contact me once.

I just mention this as on Tuesday - as a warm-up to the U20 international between England and Wales - there will be another game and, based on my experience, I suggest that anyone at the former game is very careful about what they say (and in particular what they call) one of the teams. Above all do not use the "E" word.

What do I mean? Well a few years ago I dared to suggest that RFUW's Talent Development Group (TDG) was in some way an England U18 squad - a not unreasonable thing to say being as the squad is selected by English rugby's governing body, is made up of (by common consent) the best players in the country in that age group, and everyone in the squad is English.

The response was quick and not a little heated. "Its not an England squad", I was told in a surprise phone call, "you cannot use the word England in relation to it". Apparently this usage would somehow grievously upset those who had worn the red rose, and anyway it was just a training squad for development purposes. I should not even call it the "England TDG".

As a result I have carefully avoided making any connection between the TDG squad and the "E" word ever since, which makes reporting or previewing events next Tuesday just a shade tricky because, as well as their U20 team to play England U20 at Surrey Sports Park, Wales are also sending their U18 TDG squad to play the... erm... England? English? Home TDG? British (not-including-Scotland-Wales-or-Ireland) TDG? The girls-not-playing-in-red TDG?

Actually its the second time the TDGs have played an ... uninternational(?) - they lost to the touring Canadian U18s a couple of years ago and, whatever they are to be called I hope they do really well. Indeed, given the recent performances of junior Welsh regions when playing their English equivalents, it should be a very close and exciting game. So much so that it is possible that some spectators may forget themselves and blurt out the "E" word when cheering on the Home Team. My advice, therefore, is to be very careful indeed. Bite your tongue. Practice your "Come on you R.F.U.W.T.D.G.U.18 squad" calls. Otherwise who knows who will be calling you - or even tapping you on the shoulder.

You have been warned!