The under 16 East local Pathways programme matches been in actions for the past 2 weeks and has served up some entertaining rugby in all of the games following on from the development sessions in June. Six sides from the South East of Scotland have been taking part - the Borders East Stormers and West Warriors, the Edinburgh Eastern Eagles, Western Chargers and Capital Crusaders along with the East Lothian Falcons. All of the sides are made up from players nominated from all local schools and clubs.
 
Last week, 15th August, at Gala RFC, we had 3 entertaining games in excellent running rugby conditions under the sun.  The East Stormers managed to hold of the first half challenge of the Western Chargers from Edinburgh before putting some nice movements together in the second half to score a couple of tries and close out the game. The second game, and perhaps the pick of the 3 was the Eastern Eagles and the Capital Crusaders, the game ended 27 – 24 to the Crusaders but both sides showed that the skills that they have been learning at training were well transferred to the game with some excellent passing, offloading and wide play. To round off the days matches East Lothian played the Borders West and ran out eventual winners with some slick handling and strong running in the backs being the difference on the day.
 
The second weekend of Pathway Development Fixtures took place at East Lothian’s Meadowmill on Sunday 22nd August. The same format was followed with three games back to back. All of the squads had obviously been working hard on tackling, ball presentation and clearing the contact area as this showed a marked improvement from the previous week. Stormers v Eagles, Warriors v Crusaders and Falcons v Chargers - All 3 matches were competitive and it wasn’t until the tail end of the second half in each of the games that the Eagles, Crusaders and Falcons respectively managed to put a bit of gloss onto the score lines. The sizeable crowd were treated to some excellent running rugby with some great tries often after putting many phase together and some nice offloading and support play.
 
The players all have learnt and developed new skills and game understanding throughout the sessions in June and in August, they will now be sent a players report complied by from the coaches that highlights their strengths and to focus their efforts on the relevant skills to help them develop as a player in their school or club programmes.
 
The next step is the start of the Regional Programme for both Edinburgh and the Borders where an extended squad will be selected in the next few weeks and players invited to the first Regional Squad session on the 18th / 19th October for Edinburgh and the 4th October for the Borders. The squad will then go through a further selection and preparation phase before the National Identification Fixtures in April 2011 alongside Caledonia and Glasgow. All players will receive a letter with a player report and notification if they have been selected to progress to the extended Regional Squad.
 
Lastly thank you to all of the volunteer coaches for the time that they have given up during June / August to help to develop the players.
 
Ben Fisher
Regional Academy Coach
Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian
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Chris Dewsnap
Regional Academy Coach
Borders and East Lothian
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EASTERN EAGLES SQUAD
William Kesley (Stewarts Melville College) Kyle Kirkland (Leith Academy/Heriot’s) David Watson (Dalkeith HS/Currie) Connor McCormack (Boroughmuir) Craig Murray (Currie) Finlay Watson-Kerr (James Gillespies HS/
Boroughmuir) Matt Poole (George Watson’s College) David Roulston (Trinity Academy/BATS) Tom White (Boroughmuir HS/RFC) Andrew Young (Penicuik HS/Currie) Rory Dawson (Fettes College) Paul Dobson (Boroughmuir HS/RFC) Ben Flett (Merchiston Castle School) Graeme Peddieson (Beelslack HS/Musselburgh) Angus Sinclair (Merchiston Castle School) Jamie Spratt (Edinburgh Academy) Tom Stott (Biggar) & Greg Wilson (Portobello HS/RFC)

James Bedford (George Watson’s College) Grant Burberry (Boroughmuir HS/RFC)
John Newman (James Gillespies HS/Boroughmuir) William Edwards (Fettes College)
Iain Martin (Boroughmuir HS/RFC) Tom Grey (Edinburgh Academy) Rory Watt (Portobello HS /Musselburgh) Robert Wilson (Penicuik HS/Currie) Matthew Flett (Merchiston Castle School)
David Hall (Penicuik HS/Currie) Seamus Thomson (George Watson’s College) Calum Turner (Boroughmuir HS/RFC) Alasdair Bain (Portobello HS/RFC) James Bendit (Edinburgh Academy)
& Fraser McKay (George Watson’s College)

CENTRAL CRUSADERS SQUAD
Dean Barnard (Fettes College) Michael Gillespie (George Watson’s College) Niall Simpson (Boroughmuir HS/RFC) Jonah Theurer (George Heriot’s School) Jay Chan (Merchiston Castle School) Rory Scott (Trinity Academy/BATs)
Hamish Campbell (George Watson’s College) Ben Cogley (Fettes College) James Penny (Currie HS/RFC) William Brown (George Watson’s College) Calum Garvey (Trinity Academy/BATs) Aaron Laurenson (BATs)Mark Lowes (Stewarts Melville College)  Zak McRae (Trinity Academy/BATs) Ruaridh Young (Fettes College) Rory Simpson (Edinburgh Academy) & Scott Simpson (Royal HS/RHC)

Niall Brady (Royal HS/Heriot’s) Fraser Graham (Edinburgh Academy) Hamish MacLeod (Fettes College) Scott Docherty (Stewarts Melville College) Alex Swan (Edinburgh Academy) Russell Grant (Stewarts Melville College) Chris MacBeth (George Watson’s College) Harry Smith (Boroughmuir HS/RFC) Steven Collins (Trinity Academy/BATs) Will Graham (Edinburgh Academy) Davis Martin (Fettes College) Cammy McLauchlin (George Watson’s College) Robin Rowbottom (Edinbrugh Academy) Ryan Frost (Stewarts Melville College) Scott McWilliam (Merchiston Castle School) & Ben Watson (George Heriot’s School)

WESTERN CHARGERS SQUAD
Euan Donaldson (Royal HS/Heriots) Cameron Dori-Muir (Bathgate Academy/Linlithgow) Euan Magurran (Royal HS) Seitaro Usuda (Merchiston Castle School) Scott Hurst (Balerno HS/Currie) Andrew Neilson (St Mungos/Linlithgow)
Neil Irvine-Hess (George Watson’s College) Sam Pert (West Calder HS/Currie) Michael Selamas (Currie HS/RFC) Finlay Dunlop (Linlithgow Academy/RFC) Keiran Faulds (Linlithgow Academy/RFC) Ross Gibb (James Young HS/Livingston)
Fergus Greig (Edinburgh Academy) Lewis Herdman (Linlithgow) Andrew McWilliam (Edinburgh Academy) James Rawcliffe (West Calder HS/Currie) Douglas Sutherland (Royal HS/Heriot’s) Gilmore Whitton (Royal HS/Heriot’s)

Oliver Connelly (Balerno HS/Currie) James MacLauchlan (Fettes College) Duncan Swanson (Balerno HS/Currie) Kerr Anderson (St Margarets/Livingston) Robbie Foubister (Currie HS/RFC) Liam Chornogubsky (Royal HS) Jack Frame (Linlithgow Academy/RFC) Fraser Mushet (West Calder HS/Livingston) Ewan Smith (Balerno HS/Currie) Calum Gibb (James Young HS/Livingston) Anthong Gilchrist (Craigmount HS/Forrester) David McLean (Linlithgow) Nicholas Igoe (St Kentergens/Livingston) James Cowe (Queensferry HS/Forrester) Josh Ewing (Broxburn Academy/Linlithgow)
& Nick Pert (West Calder HS/Currie)