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Academy player draft?


Will be interesting to see how the new academy lines are drawn
Could see
Worcesters academy
West Midlands (Birmingham) - Tigers
Shropshire - Sale
Staffordshire - Split with Tigers and Sale
Herefordshire/Worcestershire - Gloucester

Wasps Academy
Coventry - Tigers
Buckinghamshire - Saints
Oxfordshire - Gloucester
North Warwickshire - Saints

London Irish academy
Berkshire and Hampshire I can see being split and given to Bristol
North Middlesex - Sarries and Quins

Or we could see a massive redraw of the boundaries but don't see that happening to a large extent.
 
Shame to see three academies drop out but it makes sense if they're unmatched to pro clubs, miss out on the coaching and connections and progression pathways

West Midlands (Birmingham) - Tigers
I was surprised when I found out Birmingham was in Worcesters catchment - we always had Tigers grassroots coaches (and sometimes players) coming to do coaching sessions, never saw anyone from Wuss, always presumed they were further south and west

Staffordshire - Split with Tigers and Sale
This makes sense, you forget how far Staffordshire reaches up north - almost level with Sheffield

Burton and below goes to Tigers, everything above goes to Sale - basically what it is now tbf, Lichfield/Burton is all Tigers country, Stoke is Sale
 
If Ealing was in a stronger position I would be tempted to allow them to buy in the prem and give them the east part of the Irish catchment
But Ealing will perish after a season of perm rugby imo
 

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