Public school system provides bulk of Scots under-17 squad

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 23:50

A 30-STRONG Scotland Under-17 squad will fly out today for a two-week training camp in Spain.

A glance in the brackets after the names of those selected reveals Scottish youth rugby remains reliant on the public school base, with more than half of the squad coming from that system, but only four players come from another traditional heartland – the Borders.

There are 16 players from private schools – 11 Scottish and five English. Of the rest, six come from state schools and eight from clubs. The regional breakdown is pretty even with Borders (4), Glasgow (8), Edinburgh (7), Caledonia (5) and England (6).

The players, management and support staff will spend an intensive fortnight at the camp in Valladolid, north-central Spain. The focus will be on technical, tactical, mental and physical strength and conditioning. The camp, led by Under-18 coach Grant McKelvey, acts as the transformation period for the youngsters from U17 to the U18 development side.

SCOTLAND U17 SQUAD: R Hislop (Hawick Wands); G Robertson (Earlston HS/Melrose), A Allan (Sedbergh School), S Cessford (HS of Dundee), J MacFarlane (Gourock HS/Greenock Wands), R Hood (Strathallan), G Turner (Stew-Mel Coll), F Wem (Hampton School/Wasps), C Ferguson (East Kilbride), S McDevitt (HS of Glasgow) , G Barnes (Chesterfield), M Eadie (Filton Coll), M Peacock (George Watson's Coll), M Walker (Boroughmuir), A Nagle (Jed Thistle), A De ste Croix (Boroughmuir) , M McConnell (Lenzie Acad/West), J Adams (Aberdeen GS), J Munro, F Gillies (both Edinburgh Acad), J Bradford (Worksop Coll), M Crawley (Stew-Mel Coll), M Beckwith (Marr Coll), M Bennett (Cumnock), J Urquhart (Dollar Acad), S Hogg (Hawick Wands), D Day (Paviours), H Jones (Robert Gordon's Coll), A McCall Hagan (St Aloysius), R Inglis (Calderside Acad/Hamilton).