Academy Roundup: The Youngsters Are Doing Well

By Prof
March 1 2006

In the last England U21 game against Scotland five of the team were supplied by the NEC Harlequins Academy – Mark Lambert, Chris Robshaw, Alex Rogers, Mike Brown and Tosh Masson. Four of those players will keep their place for the U21 game against France with Tosh returning to The Stoop.

Jordan Turner-Hall has started in all of England U19s games this season too, and it has just been announced that four players are in the England U18 Squad: Sandy Reid, Seb Stegmann, Philip Burgess and Tom Sargeant.

The NEC Harlequins Elite Player Development Programme is also producing England players. At U16 level Sam Smith has been selected for the top squad with Jack Muggridge, Ben Bateman and Chris York being selected for the U16 A squad. Sam Sutcliffe was also was also in the U16 trials but because he is still 14 he wouldn’t be selected at U16 level.

The Academy youngsters have also been playing a big part in the success of the Quins A team in the Guinness A League this season - Quins are currently top of the Southern Conference two points ahead of Gloucester.

Tosh Masson and Jordan Turner-Hall have both received Quinssa Bursaries in the past and Quinssa were delighted to announce awards of Bursaries to Sandy Reid and Seb Stegmann who have done extremely well to get selected for the England U18 squad as they are both a year young. This was on the same evening that Tony Russ and Collin Osborne explained how the Academy is set up at Quins and answered questions from the packed room and players, George Robson and Charlie Amesbury, gave their views on Quins and the Academy.

As well as the two new Bursaries Quinssa also announced their sponsorship of the exchange programme with the Natal Sharks Academy. The £2000 awarded will allow two Academy players to head out to South Africa at the end of our season.

Quinssa also announced two ways for people to continue to support the Quins Academy, one is a donation scheme and the other is a 100+ Club. Details of both are available on the form which can be downloaded here.

As Tony Russ said:

"This level of commitment from our own supporters is both welcome and encouraging and has enabled us to continue with our exchange programme in the reduced circumstances in which we found ourselves this season. Our thanks go to the Quinssa committee and members for their enthusiastic support of the academy and we hope to repay this support by providing even more players for future first teams here."

So why not download the form, sign up for the 100+ Club and maybe even make a donation to help support our Academy and the future of NEC Harlequins.

Further details of the schemes are available from the Quinssa website.

A full report of the Quinssa Meet The Academy Night will appear on this site soon.

The next “Quinssa Evening” will be a Meet The Referee Evening with Ashley Rowden on Tuesday 14^th March 2006.