U18s Team update

Mixed 18s – Squads Brief 1 v1.119 November 2014

This document has been prepared in order to provide briefing information for the England Mixed 18s (X18s) squad for the 2015 international season.

This note covers:

• Introductions and Final Squad Selections;
• Key Dates for Your Diary;
• Costs;
• Commitment;
• Next Steps.

Introductions and Final Squad Selections

Dear Players and Parents,

Firstly, may I just say ‘Hi’ to everyone and apologise for the delay in sending out this first communication.

I'm Nigel Scadden, the Manager for the X18s England Touch Team and will be working closely with Nicholas Matenga (Head Coach), Players and Parents to ensure that everyone is up to date with everything "X18s England Touch" related. Should you have any queries, concerns or just want to know more details please email me.

In this first email I've tried to summarise the current position of the X18s Touch, including training dates and the first training session/venue. Training venues will be spread around the country, but will also be dependent on availability of training facilities, other coaches and the X18s team make-up.

The first training session will take place from 9.30am until dark on Saturday 20th December at:

Lincoln Rugby Club

Longdales Park

Lodge Lane

Lincoln

LN2 2RS

For this England X18s training, we will be holding a final skills session and trial games for all those who attended Nationals in Cambridge. If you cannot make the 20th December session due to a valid reason, this will not jeopardise your potential selection in anyway. We will then announce a squad of between 24-30 players after the conclusion of the day that we can take forward and develop and interact with other England squads in 2015. We are also considering the possibility of training with the England senior teams at the Welbeck Defence Academy, Loughborough (on April 11/12) as they prepare for the 2015 Touch World Cup.

Key Dates for Your Diary

• X18s training skills session and trial games – Saturday 20th December, Lincoln Rugby Club
• X18s squad training – Sunday 11th January 2015, venue to be confirmed
• X18s squad training – Sunday 15th February 2015, venue to be confirmed
• X18s squad training – Sunday 29th March 2015, venue to be confirmed
• All-England training camp – Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th April 2015 Welbeck Defence Academy (X18s potential attendance TBC)
• X18 squad training – Sunday 5th July, venue to be confirmed

The European Touch X18 Junior Touch Championships (JTC) venue is in the process of being finalised and will be announced before Christmas (it is likely to be played in August 2015).

Last year was the first year that England Touch introduced a National X18s squad, as well as an X18s division in the England Touch Nationals and we have learnt a number of valuable lessons from the experience, many of which were very positive. However, two key areas we feel we must highlight for potential players and parents/guardians are costs and commitment.

Costs

Touch is a developing sport in the UK, with no government funding, minimal sponsorship opportunities and a relatively small affiliation revenue generated by the governing body that covers all areas of annual operations activity. Therefore, elite costs are met by the players/parents/guardians, i.e. it is a player-paid sport to represent England. To give you an idea, the 2013/2014 costs, which included training camps, kit and the European Championships in Wales was in the region of £1,000 per player.

England Touch is happy for the players and parent to consider ways to fundraise in order to reduce player costs – if you have any ideas please discuss these with us.

Commitment

Over the next few months, there will be a number of training camps throughout the UK which will involve hotel stays and travel. There will be lots and additional fitness and exercise programmes for players to undertake. We are also waiting for the confirmation of where the Junior Touch Championships will be held which in the summer which we will be working towards. All of this will involve additional commitment in terms of your time and we also appreciate that many players will be undertaking GSCEs, AS and A-level exams as well.

Next Steps

What to do now?

1. I would be grateful if you could CLICK HERE to provide us with the necessary information.
2. You need to have confirmed via the link above whether you will be attending the skills session and trial games by 5.00pm Monday 8th December 2014.

I hope the above will be of assistance and in the meantime, should you wish to discuss anything then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Nigel Scadden

England Touch Mixed 18s Manager

Mobile: 07974-793747

Email:  nigel.s@elgarassociates.co.uk