Nathen Earle

Watched Nathen Earle (former Saracens and England under 20 player) come on as a replacement for Canterbury in the weekend. Definitely looks to have raw talent and potential. Canterbury v Hawkes Bay[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pX8cLnLt6o] (try at about the 7:18 mark) Anyone know how longs he's in NZ for?

Loan till the end of the ITM cup.

I think this is a great set up.
If possible we should send a lot of our best youth out to play for a sabbatical in NZ. Lean the skills required to beat them and then bring them back for their senior career.

If he had not missed so much time from injury may never have happened. However I agree it is good for player development.

Despite being utter &%$£&*&$%s in the board room, Saracens as a club do a hell of a lot right.

Especially with their youth players. The only grumble is that sometimes they hold them back a little too long, thinking of George and Spencer where ideally tehy would have got slighlty more experience earlier but it's a quibble.

Didn't M.Johnson have some early years out there?
I am sure I heard him say somewhere how beneficial it was for his confidence.

I really think this is something that should be fostered at the RFU clubs - like an exchange programme for senior academy kids.
For them it would be like a fully funded gap year - who wouldn't jump at that.

Clubs would get an academy graduate with ITM or maybe Super Rugby experience, learning skills in a different environment and in exchange would get a promising NZ club academy kid for a season who gets to experience Northern Hem pro rugby.

I don't see why clubs and players wouldn't want that.

Johnson got his mrs out there.

Though Itoje, Farrell and Goode were all given their chance.

Sure recruiting the likes of Smit and Bosch delays the arrival of players like George and Tompkins, but look how much they learn in the meantime. Jamie George is still only 25 and while it was really only half way through the 2014/15 season that he became a regular starter he now has two premiership titles and a European one and 8 caps. He is quite possibly the best hooker in the NH at the moment - shame he is being skipper blocked maybe.

Yeah Jonno went out after school, impressed Colin Meads, played for NZ U21s and met Kay who returned to England with him.

George was in the unique position where he benefited from the experience of 2 top Hookers in Smit and Brits.

Like I said a quibble. Some players are thrown in too long, some sheltered a touch. They're generally spot on in the long run. Ironically you have a guy like Lozowski who was sheltered a little too much by Wasps (perhaps I'm being kind to them as it seemed Young just didn't rate him for come reason) who is now getting his chance as the 10 fill in.

The SRU run a scheme called the Macphail scholarship where every year a few talented young players get to go over to NZ and spend time at the Canterbury RFU International High Performance Unit. It certainly doesn't seem to do them any harm, as some of the past winners are John Barclay (2005), Jonny Gray (2012) & Finn Russell (2013) - all of who have gone on to become key players at senior level for Scotland.

We have sent coaches over there as well as players in the past. It is only a one way thing though not an exchange scheme. We prefer to take New Zealand's players when they're a bit older and on a less temporary basis  

http://scottishrugby.org/news/16/04/05/top-scots-rewarded-prestigious-new-zealand-scholarship

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:The SRU run a scheme called the Macphail scholarship where every year a few talented young players get to go over to NZ and spend time at the Canterbury RFU International High Performance Unit. It certainly doesn't seem to do them any harm, as some of the past winners are John Barclay (2005), Jonny Gray (2012) & Finn Russell (2013) - all of who have gone on to become key players at senior level for Scotland.

We have sent coaches over there as well as players in the past. It is only a one way thing though not an exchange scheme. We prefer to take New Zealand's players when they're a bit older and on a less temporary basis  

http://scottishrugby.org/news/16/04/05/top-scots-rewarded-prestigious-new-zealand-scholarship

Is that in exchange for Nz'ers to come and represent Scotland at senior level

Nothing wrong with the odd McKiwi. The MacBoks on the other hand.

There is McMaitland - who else is there?

McHardie (and for a brief time McBlake).

McLeslie 1 and McLeslie 2

ScarletSpiderman wrote:McLeslie 1 and McLeslie 2

I wasn't planning on going that far back

Always start at the beginning

Dean Ryan always says his New Zealand experience was invaluable.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503436&objectid=11161588

Recent Eddie Jones interview said he was part of a player swap in the amateur era with Matt Poole of Leicester. This kind of informal arrangement had a long history. It was all just about making sure you had somewhere to stay, and a cash job for beer and food.

At one time, some local NZ sides actively courted young, promising players from Britain and Ireland. That's how John Gallagher became an All Black, and Martin Johnson nearly did.

All very different in the professional era but there are still players like Matt Symons who have gone south and prospered. He came back to stake a claim for England, and earn a bit more dough, but I wonder whether another top season with the Chiefs might have served him better.

It will be a big ask for Symons to break into the England side considering current competition. Could stake a claim a tour spot for England when the Lions are away depending on how many EJ wants to take. Same for players like Earle.

I really think that this kind of exchange programme would be invaluable to Prem clubs and surprised that something more structured hasn't been attempted - maybe there is a kick starter company in that idea!

Senior Academy players do head south occasionally, albeit not usually at ITM level. Off the top of my head for London Irish in the last few years, Gerard Ellis spent time playing club rugby for Sydney University and Tom Smallbone was doing similar playing for Linwood in Christchurch.

Would be good though to see a few more heading over though to get experience there (especially at ITM level if possible) as it really can't do much harm for some of the larger prem clubs where there's a longer queue to break into the first team.

Maybe its something that RFU could look into organising for our promising U20's (in conjunction with their clubs).
Like organising 5 scholarship places for a year away - following the model idea of the SRU scholarship.

Yeah, I don't see why not assuming the clubs were on board. Perhaps a few U20 grads each year. Probably learn more there than mostly playing LV/A league. Although they'd also have to be good enough to get an ITM gig too, so may not be suitable for everyone.