IPSWICH school pupils Mohamed Osman and George Woodley have been selected for the Northampton Saints run England Player Development Group.

Stuart Watson

IPSWICH school pupils Mohamed Osman and George Woodley have been selected for the Northampton Saints run England Player Development Group.

Osman, 14, and Woodley, 15, both play for Colchester Rugby Club and have been training with the Saints for over two years as part of the Elite Player Development Centre.

Promotion to the England Player Development Group has meant that, in addition to weekly training with the Saints' Academy, they will now also enjoy training sessions with the Saints' first team, travelling to Northampton every six weeks to work alongside players of the calibre of All Black Bruce Reihana and British Lion Tom Smith.

“Northampton was the first club to set up a full-time academy,” says Julian Halls, Ipswich School's Director of Games. “The part time programme they run reaches out to over 100 young players in the region and the England Player Development Group caters for the very best of them.

“It's a system which has produced an impressive crop of players both for the Saints and for England, including Steve Thompson and Ben Cohen.

“It's wonderful that Mo and George, who have already made a real impact on the game at County and regional levels, are now able to enjoy these high level opportunities.”

Both Osman and Woodley have played Under-15 rugby for Suffolk and for Eastern Counties this season, with Osman captaining both sides as well as the Colchester U15 team.