DEVON Schools’ RFU will be holding their development day/trial for the 2018/19 under-16 squad on Sunday, October 28.

The event will taking place on the Royal Navy’s artificial surface at Keyham in Plymouth.

Schools in the county are asked to nominate any players they feel have the potential to play for Devon by Friday, October 19.

To help teachers with nominations, Devon Schools’ RFU have issued the following criteria.

1 All of last season’s U15 County Squad are invited (50 boys)

2  Schools are asked NOT nominate boys included in the Exeter Chiefs U16 Academy and U16 DPP squads for 2018/19 since we have the contact details for these boys and will be inviting them separately.

3 Schools should be realistic and only nominate boys they consider are good enough to play for the Devon Schools’ U16.  It is unlikely a school will have more than one or two boys who are good enough, although there will be exceptions to this rule.

4 Please note that some boys who were in last season’s U15 DPP have not been selected for this season’s U16 DPP so you will need to nominate them if you think they should attend.

5 If the number of boys nominated is too large the development day/trial becomes unmanageable and many boys will be disappointed.

Additional notes about the development day/trial

The RFU structured season applies time constraints to when age-grade games can be played. Due to these constraints Devon Schools’ development day/trial for the county U16 teams are being held in a single day.  The nominated boys will be assessed in the morning prior to selection for trial games in the afternoon. UNFORTUNATELY SOME OF THE NOMINATED BOYS MAY NOT BE SELECTED FOR THE TRIAL GAMES. The nominated boys will be joined by the boys who are in the Exeter Chiefs U16 Academy Pathway and U16 DPP squads for 2017/18 – for part or all of the day.

Player nominations should be sent to Lisa O’Shaughnessy, Devon Schools’ secretary –devonschools.secretary@gmail.com  by no later than Friday, October 19, 2018. They should include each player’s full name, preferred position and school/club.

Teachers who nominate a player/s should download this DEVELOPMENT DAY INFORMATION FORM and this CONSENT FORM and pass then on to the nominated boys. Anyone attending the trials should only wear AGP approved footwear (NO blades or flatshoes).

Devon Under-16 games will be held in January and February.  The match dates are as follows:

January 6, 2019 – Devon U16s  v Somerset U16s at Ivybridge RFC

January 20, 2019 – North Gloucestershire U16s v Devon U16s (away venue TBC) 

February 3, 2019 – Cornwall U16s v Devon U16s (away venue TBC)  

February 25, 2019 – Devon v Dorset & Wiltshire at Ivybridge RFC

Training dates to follow, along with extra information on the games.

Information on the Devon Schools’ Under-15 boys’ teams and under-18 and under-15 girls’ sides will be issued at a later date.