Will Parkin is the England U18 rugby assistant coach down in South Africa as the young guns look to compete in the U18 International Series. He writes on pathways and why the most successful rugby players aren’t just good on the pitch.
England Under-18s rugby is the start of the pathway for these players and the beginning of their journey in hopefully becoming U20 world champions in two or three years’ time, and then senior internationals.
The England U20s spoke about their Brotherhood in South Africa this year, and that started back in 2022 in Marcoussis when they were at U18 Six Nations level. We’re trying to form a bond between the players coming out for the first time with us, and also from a wider pathway perspective for the next three or four years.
We’ve played Ireland and Georgia, and will take on South Africa on Tuesday.
More than on the pitch
I stress that whilst me and JP [Jonathan Pendlebury, U18 Men’s head coach] are in charge of the rugby on the pitch, it’s not just us driving those processes. It’s a wider staff effort that implements these principles of speed, attachment and space (SAS) and in particular with this tour, getting better and better and better.
That starts with our strength and conditioning and nutrition staff making sure the players are coming onto the tour in a position to thrive physically on the pitch. Carrie [Exworth, team manager], Tim [Newhouse, analyst] and Ben [Harper, kit man] do a fantastic job of creating an environment where the boys develop as rugby players with attributes that will help as people too.
SAS is the overriding principle in the pathway and underpins our approach from England U17 to U20 level. My job is specifically making sure these boys become better rugby players and decision makers, whilst also developing core positional skills. Yes, we want all forwards to feel comfortable playing the ball at the line with a variety of passes, but not getting away from the fact that their set-piece must be the cornerstone of their game to kick-on to U20 and senior Premiership level.
Alongside skill development, we want to push these boys to explore on this tour, as well as implementing those principles of speed and attachment to elevate their understanding of game management. School and academy rugby is often open, broken-field rugby and going up against the experience of other countries will demand more of our players in that respect, particularly the half-backs.
England progress
These teams, some who also may have had more experience together as a group or who utilise slightly older players, bring a different dynamic to what some of the boys are used to and replicate what the senior game may look like. It’s incredibly useful for these players.
I had a great chat with Tofty [Mark Mapletoft, England U20 Men’s head coach] on the way to camp about what this tour is all about for these players, who have been the best players in their age-group for a long time. It will give us the opportunity to examine their skills and physicality against, ultimately, some of the best in the world at this level.
Off the pitch, some of these players are getting on a flight away from their families for the first time, so it’s imperative for them to develop some life skills away from rugby whilst recognising the opportunity rugby has offered them that they may not have had otherwise.
We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from the England U20s in how well they worked as a group and we’ll create chances for them to get to know each other better, which is something we learnt from the last International Series. We’re starting the Brotherhood from now with this group; Tim and James Hairsine [strength and conditioning coach) have created our own Stellenbosch Olympics where the boys represent their own athlete groups with competitions rewarding medals for work ethic in game scenarios and away from the pitch.
U18 growth
We’ve made a conscious effort in the past 12-18 months to align the pathway. That starts from a 17-year-old entering their first camp and seeing U20 coaches. From a playing point of view, JP and I have put tasks together for this England U18 group to watch the U20s and feed back to us on how they want to bring that to life in their own games this week. I know they look up to them, in less than 12 months players like Billy Sela, Olamide Sodeke, Junior Kpoku, Lucas Friday, Angus Hall and Jack Bracken have competed in the 2023 International Series and then won the recent U20 Championship.
We want to be competitive and want to win. Some of these players are 16 and 17-years-old and they need to take those first steps of development with us to reach that ultimate goal of professional rugby. We need to see that from session to session, game to game.
South Africa is a unique prospect that won’t be lost on anyone, especially given they’ve had the upper hand on England during last few trips there. It’s the third and final game of the tour, so that physical and mental proposition after a quick turnaround will be a positive challenge for our lads.
Overall, we want these players to leave the tour as better players and approach their programmes with clubs and schools in a great position to kick-on for club and country next year, where we can continue to support their development so they can do great things with us and beyond.