It's all coming up Roses

SAM Alford will walk back through the doors of Sheldon School in Chippenham today very sore and sorry, but he'll be cherishing every scratch.

With two other Wiltshire lads, Wootton Bassett's Karl Brant and Fraser Clilverd of Upper Seagry, he returned from his first England U18 training session on Tuesday after three days of intense action at Broadstreet, Coventry with 80 of the best rugby prospects in the country.

"Training with those guys was definitely one of the most intense rugby experiences of my life," Alford said.

"Everyone came out with all guns blazing in the trial games, but I'm really happy with the way I went."

Despite suffering from flu throughout the week before New Year, Alford managed to score a try in the trials on the Sunday, and for the next two days the core squad was split into three separate teams to contest as many different tournaments.

Chippenham junior and Bath academy player Alford will vie for the starting scrum-half spot in an older squad to take on Ireland at Cork on March 26, France at Bournemouth on April 2 and Wales at Neath on April 9.

Meanwhile Chippenham mini representative Clilverd, also at Bath academy, and Wootton Bassett junior and Bristol academy member Brant have been training with a younger team to tackle Italy and France at the Association Europen Rugby festival at Lille on March 17 to 26.

At the end of February they will be confirmed for the France trip or put into another squad to play the Four Home Unions Festival in Wales on March 25 to April 1

The three were among 22 players from the South West in the core squad who did enough at the Divisional Festival at Castlecroft on December 17 to 19 to secure a place in the initial training program.

After convening with the other juniors who will take English rugby into the next decade, our three representatives has consolidated their place in the squad which was further trimmed after the three-day session and are more certain of what they're up against.

Now that the school and club squads are combined at England U18 level, there are a huge amount of players for coaches to consider for the U19 World Cup in April in South Africa or the subsequent event in 2006.

Together with the development of academies at all the top clubs, in the South West's case Bath and Bristol, RFU spokesman Simon Mills said there is a much greater chance the current crop of U18 will go on to represent their country at senior level.

"We are definitely finding our future internationals alot younger now, compared to four or five years ago," he said.

As our juniors receive better coaching and conditioning, so our future England prospects have to start looking towards their rugby as a career while they are still at school. The commitment it takes to stay at the highest level is significant, and it's at this age where players often have to choose between rugby, a conventional career or trying to balance the two.

Currently studying for his A levels at Sheldon School in Chippenham, Alford's U18 selection will further complicate a year already cluttered with his commitments to Bath.

"It is really difficult juggling everything, but I'll just have to deal with it.

"The school have been absolutely brilliant, and I have an adjusted timetable so I can fit everything in."

With final exams in May and June, Alford is hoping to perform just as well in the classroom as he has on the field to secure a place at Bath University.

"It would be perfect with my rugby in Bath to study there as well, but I'm not entirely sure what I'd like to do as yet.

"I've thought of taking a year out to concentrate on rugby, but I don't want to lose the initiative, it would be ideal to just carry on with university I think."

Alford found it difficult to watch from the sideline at Allington Field on Boxing Day as his brother Joe and former team-mates triumphed in a side coached by father Rob against a selection led by first team skipper Rupert Crockett.

"It would have been great to have a run out, but I've got to be cautious and pick and choose where I play.

"As much fun as it would be, you've got to weigh up whether it's worth getting injured in a game like that and what it might do to your chances."

Having made his senior debut for Bath against Harlequins in the Powergen Cup victory on December 18 at the Rec, replacing Wootton Bassett's Mike Baxter, Alford took a giant leap forward only two weeks after becoming eligible to vote.

With the signing of Bath old boy Andy Williams and Nick Walshe's recovery from an ankle injury, Alford is realistic about further call ups to the senior squad.

"At the start of the year my target was not playing first team rugby at Bath. For that chance to come along was a huge bonus.

"Now I just have to bide my time and take that chance again if it comes along," said the former junior footballer who still lives with his parents in Queens Close.

While Alford opted for Bath, fellow England U16 representative Brant was snapped up by the Bristol Shoguns academy.

The 17-year-old, who returns to his parents' home in Westbury Park at the weekend after attending Filton College in Bristol during the week, was also exhausted after his run out with England's best.

"It was pretty intense all right, and really tiring.

"But I'm particularly pleased with the way I went, after that first session I'm more comfortable at that level."

The former Wootton Bassett School student has mainly played full-back during his young career after leaving Bassett juniors at the age of 15 for the playing move to Bristol.

"They played me at both centre and full-back up at the England training, but I'm definitely more comfortable at full-back.

"The academy has been great for improving me as a player, but also training with the first team (at Bristol) during the summer holidays and during the season," he said.

Although he is moving up through the ranks, like senior squad member at Bath and former Wootton Bassett clubmate Mike Baxter, he is not about to forget where he is from.

"I still have a strong involvement with the Wootton Bassett club, I'm proud of coming from here," Brant said.

At 14 stone 10 pounds, Brant is already a hefty lad for a back, and he has been told his ideal playing weight for his age is 15 stone.

At the initial junior World Cups the northern hemisphere sides were steamrolled by the New Zealand and South African teams and lost many games almost on lack of bulk alone.

For this reason strength and conditioning training over the last five years has increased remarkably across junior rugby, and alot of the England U18s squad have already played in the Zurich Premiership.

"Many of the U18s are already equipped for the top level of senior rugby, which would have been quite rare five years ago," Mills said

"Most will be ready for the Premiership at age 20, and players are given better nutritional and training information earlier than ever before. They're bigger and fitter at an earlier stage of their careers than they have ever been."

This also means today's professionals are becoming younger and younger. Former Wootton Bassett junior Baxter is an excellent example as he has decided to commit totally to rugby at the age of only 20 and made his full debut for Bath in the club's recent Powergen Cup victory over Harlequins.

Each of our three prospects from Wiltshire will be faced with a similar decision in the not too distant future but Alford's connection to Chippenham is not about to fade into the past either with his dad head coach at the club and many of his friends still playing there.

You may think having a father who spends almost every waking hour outside of work involved in some sort of coaching rugby is the perfect mentor, but the promising number nine said it also adds a bit of extra pressure.

"It is great to have dad there, he supports what I do wholeheartedly, and he wants the best for me.

"There is the pressure there to perform though. He puts in a lot of effort and you want to keep performing well to repay that.

"I guess there's a very fine line between being supportive and pushing too hard as well," he said.

Speaking of rugby pedigree, 17-year-old Clilverd is also one who can't say he doesn't have the right background.

Father Rob is coach of the Bristol U19 squad and a director of the Shoguns, being in the consortium of seven who rescued the club from financial ruin after their relegation from the Zurich Premiership in 2002/03.

Still living in his parents' home in Oaktree Mews, Upper Seagry, Clilverd is also a member of the Bath Academy and attended Hardenhuish School in Chippenham before heading to City of Bath College for his final two years of schooling.

An open side flanker, Clilverd was described as a 'door mat' by father Rob, and the Bristol man said his young charge returned quite exhausted but thrilled after his first England session.

"There was a further cull after that meeting so I guess there was a degree of relief there too that he's still there."

Looking back to his son's days at Chippenham, where his other lad Max plays in the U15 side, Rob said the club can take alot of credit for producing future England representatives.

"They're a very well run junior club, I think the grounding players get at Chippenham is as good as you'll get anywhere.

"Fraser is just one of the latest to go from Chippenham into the academy squads and then on to the England set up," he said.

Where once going to the correct school determined your future in rugby, Clilverd senior said clubs like Chippenham are now giving players every chance of success at the highest level.

"We are extremely strong in the South West as far as rugby clubs are concerned. It's certainly a case of a kid's first option being to kick an oval ball rather than a round one."

Mills agreed that the make-up of current national squads is due to the phenomenal increase in junior playing numbers throughout the last 15 years in clubs and also the senior World Cup victory in Australia last year.

"We are starting to see the benefits now of the mini rugby explosion in clubs throughout the 1990s, and with the academies snapping these players up, it is providing a new channel of rugby development which didn't exist previously.

"We've still got an awfully long way to go to catch up to other nations in the junior international arena, but we're definitely getting there," he said.

The school channel of development still exists, and in comparing Brant and Clilverd we have a good example of the old and new system.

While both are in academy squads, Brant plays his rugby for Filton College in Bristol, but the majority of his physical and coaching development of provided by the Shoguns club.

In contrast, Clilverd attends a non rugby playing school, City of Bath College, but he's perfectly positioned right next to the Rec for his playing commitments with the Bath U19s squad and the club's academy program.

Alford was actually a footballer in his youth, and only started spinning passes to fly-halves in the U12s for Chippenham before his meteoric rise to the England U16s, appearing for the Bath senior team and now this latest honour.

He said: "My older brother Joe really got me into rugby I guess. He played alot and it helped to have someone to throw a ball around in the back yard with at home."

Also a scrum-half, Joe plies his trade for Exeter Chiefs while studying at university and returned to grace Allington Field once again in the Boxing Day captain's XV versus coach's XV match.

It seems unlikely his younger brother will be returning to his roots so soon as he seems keen on moving up the ranks as quickly as possible.

"Playing up there and for England is great, the players are all class, and I just want to keep going as high as I can."

But as you can imagine for a teenage boy, one of the most memorable things about his most recent England experience was to do with his stomach.

"They put us up in a nice hotel, and there was loads of food. It was all good too, they certainly looked after us."

"The whole thing was a big step up from the U16s, the coaches, the players, the whole set up is just a really high standard.

"It was full on for six or seven hours a day. I've never really trained that hard for that long before and they filmed most of the sessions as well for us to watch later.

"The squad has a very good backline, a good pack and what seems like a mobile back row - so I'm pretty confident we'll do well," he said.

Alford's squad has warm up games against academies before playing Scotland A U18s. Prior to that they convene again on February 4 to 6 at Castlecroft for training.

While Fraser Clilverd was thrilled to be in the squad tackling France, father Rob seemed the most pleased.

"Lille it's not a bad location from a parent's point of view is it?"