I was talking to one of my clients yesterday, his son has recently become involved with Worcester's youth academy, having previously played for Nuneaton RFC Juniors. He goes to watch him play every week and they have been to a lot of the local rugby clubs recently, last week he was playing at Broadstreet RFC.
One of the things he said was that Wasps move is all the talk at the moment, and from the feedback he was getting at pretty much all the games was that most people couldn't wait for them to move to the Ricoh. A lot of people said they would start going to Wasps games so they could see a big team play at such a top class venue. I found this bit particularly surprising, as it does somewhat contradict the majority view (me included) that there would be very little local interest. Admittedly we're only talking about small numbers at these junior games, but it could be that there will be a bigger local turn out come December than we're all thinking.
The other comment he made was that his son had already been approached by Wasps about moving to their academy from Worcester! Worcester is reportedly one of the top junior academies in the country, and he declined their offer.
One of the things he said was that Wasps move is all the talk at the moment, and from the feedback he was getting at pretty much all the games was that most people couldn't wait for them to move to the Ricoh. A lot of people said they would start going to Wasps games so they could see a big team play at such a top class venue. I found this bit particularly surprising, as it does somewhat contradict the majority view (me included) that there would be very little local interest. Admittedly we're only talking about small numbers at these junior games, but it could be that there will be a bigger local turn out come December than we're all thinking.
The other comment he made was that his son had already been approached by Wasps about moving to their academy from Worcester! Worcester is reportedly one of the top junior academies in the country, and he declined their offer.