ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews England Rugby Union’s dual-pathway approach to identifying and developing young rugby players. This dual pathway includes age-grade rugby (i.e., participation) and their player development pathway which is implemented via 14 regional academies. The dual pathway is characterised by being wide and emergent as well as narrow and focussed. The benefits to a wide and emergent, narrow and focussed pathway are discussed alongside the challenges that exist within such a pathway, including player identification, a multi-sport, multi-environment and multi-coach development programme (i.e., organised chaos), and coach education and development.
