Should the England u16 side be scrapped?

Just found this article by Stephen Jone that i remembered reading a few years back which interested me.

http://www.rugbyworld.com/news/why-the-england-u16-team-should-be-scrapped-stephen-jones/
WARNING - This is Stephen Jones after all so whilst the premise of the article is interesting, some of the facts/points likewise and it's well written it also contain a bit of nonsense.

The thing that interested me in this is that having played in the School system (though I wasn't anywhere near that level) with people that went on to play for Counties,Academies,etc it often occurred to me that the view to age group rugby is quickly going in a strange direction IMO.

With how young players enter academies these days it’s very common for ‘large rugby schools’ to hunt academy players for senior rugby (or younger) offering them a place at their school in return for them moving there and playing for them. Usually meaning they stop playing much or even completely for the club/schools they are developed at. In my eyes this is what the academy system should prevent happening. The best players who get into academies should be getting the further exposure they need to improve in the academy and county sides whilst still being able to play for their club and schools. They shouldn’t need to move away at a young age.

Looking at players I knew in academies and county rugby a year or two back, their view of rugby changed very quickly from just trying to constantly improve and enjoy their sport (i.e. what most clubs preach to young players) to what their coaches at trials had told them they needed to do to get a shot at a professional contract. I have also found many people from completely different areas of the country who have very similar experiences of players at this age group of rugby whether it be through coaching or playing.

This is where I start getting problems with the current system. Due to the age at which many talented players will start thinking about pro-contracts these days they start concentrating all their efforts to what they think they should do to get one. Many do this to the detriment of their education, their fitness (a lot of young players can end up overplaying themselves by trying to compete for several teams alongside training in a way their body can’t cope with) and their enjoyment of rugby.

In my view the u16 side can only encourage this to happen at a younger age as young players can feel they need to make this side in order to further their development which is clearly nonsense when you look at how few current England players played for the side.

At the end of the day we don't want to go down the road Football academies have where players as young as 14 are encourage to take days of school to train and are then encouraged to basically leave school at 16 to play for the academy when many of these players won't be able to go on to careers in football leaving them in pretty sh** position when they leave the academy without much to go to,

I don’t feel a complete rejig of the system is needed as fundamentally I like the English system. I just think that more focus should be placed on enjoyment of sport at a young age as I feel this is the best way for the players to keep wanting to play the sport and therefore improve. As a side note I’d also prefer more communication between clubs and schools to try to allow players to turn out for their clubs more often.

Equally if people with knowledge of other countries views of how to take players from youth to senior rugby I'd be very interested to hear of them!