The newly created Borders / East Lothian BT Regional Rugby Academy has been well represented by East Lothian players over the course of the newly structured regional summer programme. At U16 level, no less than 14 players progressed from representing the East Lothian Falcons at Pathways games on to the Regional academy U16 team that played fixture against Edinburgh. The U16’s played games against the Glasgow U16 Regional Academy team and the Edinburgh u16 Regional Academy. They gave a good account of themselves against both teams and were very unlucky to lose 20-19 to Glasgow in the last minute of the game after conceding a penalty after being on course for the win.
There were 11 East Lothian players in the Borders East Lothian U18 squad and they managed a great win against Edinburgh after narrowly losing to Glasgow in the dying moments of the game. They beat the Edinburgh Regional Academy team 46-10, with two of the standout performers of the game being Andy Horne from Preston Lodge and Cameron Hutchison from North Berwick. The U20 games were a much tougher prospect and although they lost both of their games, the fixtures game gave some opportunities for East Lothian’s U20 players to play at a higher level and intensity. In all there were 10 East Lothian boys in the U20’s squad.
The new academy structure seems to have given many East Lothian rugby players the chance to pit themselves against some of the best players in their age group from around the country with a total of 35 players representing East Lothian over the course of the Regional academy fixtures. Each of the East Lothian secondary schools contributed players to the programme which is a credit to all the work being done at al of our secondary schools across East Lothian. Let’s hope we get some our brightest young stars representing Scotland in the national age programmes being selected later in the season.
