Oaklands College Rugby Academy

Saracens RFC is one of the few Premiership Clubs to operate with an academy for 16 - 19 year olds. The Academy provides young players serious about their sport the opportunity to combine regular rugby training with their academic studies. The 07-08 season sees the squad include over 30 players with county and divisional honours, some of whom only broke into the county squads after time at Oaklands.

Students will be based at Oaklands College, in the picturesque city of St. Albans, Hertfordshire for their academic studies and then at the college and the fantastic facilities at Saracens Training Centre for their training.

The Academy offers a BTEC National Course in Sports Science focussing on Performance and Excellence – ideal for any aspiring player. The level of study is appropriate to each individual student, allowing courses at entry level or BTEC courses equivalent to either two or three A Levels.

As part of the course students in the Academy will be expected to offer their services to the surrounding community and schools in the form of supervised coaching and rugby development work. Students will undertake Community Sports Leaders Award and their RFU Level 1 Coaching to help facilitate their community work.

Each players’ competitive programme will be worked out individually and will consist of a mix of Academy games, junior club games, representative games and possibly some Saracens 2nd XV games.

The students will have their lectures in the afternoon and rugby training in the mornings. Each players competitive programme will be worked out individually and will consist of a mix of Academy games, junior club games, representative games and some 2nd XV games.

Academy players will be managed by the club’s academy staff, who will supervise their conditioning, technical, tactical and competitive programmes.

Current year 2 students are applying to universities such as Loughborough, Bath, Brunel and Cardiff to continue their sports studies and rugby careers. There are also one or two players who are likely to get professional contracts at the club once they complete the course.

If you are interested in applying to the Oaklands College Rugby Academy and you are currently in Year 11 or 16-19 years old, please email us for further information or fill in an application form that can be downloaded by clicking here.

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