The 2024/25 Ulster Age-Grade Squad lists for this summer's interprovincial series can be found here.
On the summer squads
“The squads represent a lot of the work that has gone in this season with a view that we start next year really strongly. The players that have been selected for these squads should be congratulated and there is a degree of excitement about those squads. They’ll come together in early July and develop in their squads that run through to the end of August.
It’s a really key time for the players in the pathway because if they perform and do well in that competition it sets them off in the right foot for national/ international representation in the various U18 and U19s national squads.”
How the squads are selected
"There is a huge body of people working behind the scenes to make sure we see as many games as possible and watch as many players as possible, so that our decision making around those squads is as accurate as possible.
Firstly, there would be a nomination process where every school coach, club coach and those involved in high school rugby have an opportunity to nominate players at the first run at the pathway at U16 level.
Those players then come together through the RDS squads, through the club and school stream, come together and are seen about twenty times a year. That dovetails into our U17 and U18s which work east and west during the in-season and join in the summer programme.
The way the season is set up, the schoolboys will be seen each week, approximately twenty weeks across the season.
The opportunity to play games with those guys, outside of their school competitions, whereas within the club game we get the chance to play with those guys up to five games or six a season either cross region, East v West, or against a corresponding grammar school in the same age group.
That gives us a huge amount of information across the season, which is backed up by our flaggers network.
Those are individuals who go out week to week, watch games, and provide us with feedback on performance, on players outside of nominations that have developed or are starting to become the best players in their games."
Flagging network
"We have 7 Academy staff, 7 development staff, 12 flaggers and 10 club flaggers. So over 30 people are out on the ground every week watching games. I think it equated that nearly 400 teams were observed over this past season.
We talk about players in the pathway and how they are performing, as well as those new players. If those new players are flagged more than once, we make an effort to go out and watch them specifically and see what the entry point for those players within our depth charts would be.
I think across the year there were 119 players flagged who weren’t in the pathway at that point. When it comes to selecting our summer squads, we have 28 schools’ players and 10 club players. They are in the summer squads on the back of that, so that’s a good return for those volunteers and those people who assist in ID talent in Ulster."
On identifying potential across the province
"It’s vital for the pathway, for the academy and for the long-term sustainability of the Ulster Senior team.
Identifying players, helping them develop along with all that work in the clubs and schools is essential. Ulster Rugby have invested in additional pathway coaches, Jonathan Graham, Darryl Maxwell and Ricky Andrew, who are tasked with assisting in the ID of players, helping with the coaching of players and developing those guys across the year.
There is a bit of frustration from myself when I see that some people think we only focus on one or two schools, or only that we look at the Danske Bank Schools' Cup but in reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Of the 32 Schools’ Cup schools, there are 25 of those represented in the squads this summer and nine clubs represented. It’s vital for us to find the talent that we look in all four corners of the province."
How do you see the network evolving?
"We are ambitious to grow it, we want it to be as good a system as it can be. We are three years into it, there were big steps initially but my focus for now is on making sure it’s a quality system.
It’s about making sure that those people who assist in finding talent, that their IDs grow, that they can provide us with really good quality feedback and that we can identify the best players in our squads really quickly.
Those that will go beyond age-grade interprovincials, beyond national age grade squads, to play for Ireland U20s and to play for our academy.
We need to get those players early, build those relationships with clubs, schools and make sure we can put the best week in place for those players so they can aspire to be professionals over the next few seasons."
Importance of these games
"Vital. They give us great information and helps us benchmark those players against their Leinster, Munster and Connacht counterparts. When you look at the current senior squad, 26 of that current squad would have played in age-grade interprovincial fixtures.
It builds connection, people in the pathway can look at a senior player and say ‘they played U18s, U19s – can I be a part of that and follow in their footsteps and run out with the senior team when it comes?’
It builds that connection where our ID’ing and player pool that we have is only as good as the vibrant domestic game and all the players who plays week in, week out."
Future Senior men's players
"When a local player comes through the system and plays for Ulster, that creates big interest, builds the connection between players and supporters. That in turn could help the next generation of players pick up a ball and get involved in the sport.
The likes of Robert Baloucoune coming from Enniskillen, Ben Moxham coming from Larne and going on to play at Ballymena, these are really important people to have come through the pathway.
If you look at the next tier of players coming through, guys who have played in the Under 20s or are coming through in the past few years, James McCormick from Dalraida School, James McNabney from Cambridge House Grammar School, James McKillop has just come through Foyle College and Ethan Graham from Monaghan RFC, now playing for Ballynahinch RFC. It’s really important.
Hopefully with the work we do, we’ll have a number of others coming through in the not-too-distant future which is vital for the club and rugby community."
Pride in the journey
"There is satisfaction and pride. I’m in a privileged position where we see the back story in these players, we play a part as staff but if it wasn’t for someone introducing them to the sport, bringing them to mini rugby or their school game we wouldn’t have a player to feature.
It’s nice to see the rugby community coming together. Everyone who played a part should feel pride when a player comes through to make their debut for the senior side, but goes on to make many caps for Ulster."