Dr Neil Tunnicliffe is focused on building on the success of his and Wharton Consulting’s annual audit of Premiership Rugby academies.
Since the 2012/2013 season Tunnicliffe has reviewed academies for the RFU(Rugby Football Union ) and the PRL(Premiership Rugby Limited) and now that all clubs have exceeded the required level, a new approach is needed.
“It’s a sign of success that we’re in a place where no academy fails the review and they all work to a pretty high standard and I think we need to keep that standard qualitatively progressive from year to year.
We’re talking now more about qualitative exercises so less talking about what the academies are doing but more about how they do it now. And increasing the quality of their human interactions so the questions around the review are less yes/no questions and more about how ends are achieved.”
Tunnicliffe conducts the annual audit for the RFU and PRL to ensure that each club that hosts an academy is abiding by the Academy Rights License Agreement.
Despite how well academies are run nowadays there are still challenges which remain for clubs to tackle.
“We’re finding that probably the biggest problem at the moment, obviously exacerbated by the circumstances which we find ourselves in a pandemic, is finding the right kind of playing opportunities post 18 for young potential professional players to progress their development.”
Tunnicliffe argues that what he describes as ‘proto-professional’ opportunities have become harder to find for academy graduates.
Furthermore, the failure of Premiership clubs to agree on how a second-team competition should operate has augmented the problem.
Aviva ‘A’ League : Match Centre | Aviva Premiership Rugby | Official Website
“At the moment there is no agreement between Premiership clubs that that would be the right thing to do there’s those who see the A-League at the moment as effectively that competition but there are others who see it as just as a second-team where they can play whatever players they want. Which means over the course of the season you can potentially and not to say dangerous mismatches between you know a team full of senior South-Sea islanders playing against effectively an U21 side. Which isn’t very good for rugby.”
One alternative pathway for players has been BUCS Super Rugby a competition that was Tunnicliffe’s idea and has allowed players to pursue their education alongside playing top-level rugby.
The competition is now contested by 10 universities every year and has seen players professionally contracted such as Harlequins number 8 Alex Dombrandt and Tunnicliffe explained his idea behind the introduction of the competition.
2019-20 TRYLIGHTS | BUCS Super Rugby | Round 14 – YouTube
“There was an ongoing conversation around whether we were ready to make decisions about young players when they are 19 or 20, particularly if they are tight 5 forwards and they haven’t matured yet or they are in decision making positions where their psycho-social maturity isn’t as advanced as it could be, how do we kick that can down the road so we’re not having to take make or break decisions about young players when they haven’t matured yet to where we know there as good as there going to be.”
Related Articles: Exclusive: Premiership clubs asked to close academies and switch to six regional talent hubs (telegraph.co.uk)
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Exeter, Bath, Leicester, Newcastle now all have links to a BUCS Super Rugby university and for those clubs that do not, they feel it hinders them, which emphasizes the strength of an alternative route for academy graduates.
“Those institutions that don’t have a neighbouring Bucs Super Rugby university I’m thinking of Harlequins… because it was a point they made during their review this year, they see it as something that they miss and is missing piece in their jigsaw and if they did have a university on their doorstep that they could put their academies boys through they’d see that as a massive advantage for them.”
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