Edwards putting faith in Academy youngsters

Diccon Edwards is placing Leeds Carnegie’s future in the hands of an exciting crop of young talent and an established group of players with a point to prove after falling out of the Premiership.

Leeds are favourites to win promotion from the Championship when the season kicks-off on the first weekend in September and the men Edwards has entrusted with delivering on that promise are predominently Academy graduates.

The former Leeds Academy director and RFU Under-20s assistant coach is a firm believer in giving youth a chance and he will stick to that ethos as head coach of the Headingley club.

Edwards has replaced experienced Premiership campaigners like Hendre Fourie, Marco Wentzel and Steve Thompson with emerging young talent like flanker Dan Hemingway from Leicester, prop David Young from Edinburgh and Joe Ford who returns from a one-year spell at Northampton. Edwards will also lean heavily on the players he helped through the system in his first spell at the club; players who are already established like Tom Denton, Jacob Rowan and Phil Swainston, and young men on the fringes like Cameron Zeiss and Harry Hannan.

“Our recruitment policy has been about developing players who are young, enthusiastic, talented and who have the potential,” said Edwards.

“We feel in (captain) Andy Titterrell we have the right role model to head up the club. In the short term we will continue to develop the players we have got to prepare them for the Premiership.”

The club has signed a dual-registration agreement with Sale Sharks, the first benefit of that being former rugby league back Iain Thornley joining on loan.

Ryan Burrows and Stevie McColl have been recruited from Rotherham and Doncaster respectively, but it is the return of Ford that quickens the pulse.

An exciting fly-half in his breakthrough campaign two seasons ago, the son of England defence coach Mike Ford did not have it all his own way at Franklins Gardens.

Neither was the No 10 shirt a comfortable fit for Ceiron Thomas, Lachlan Mackay or Adrian Jarvis last year, with Ford, pictured, seen as the man to end Leeds’s uncertainty at fly-half.

“I’m very pleased with the type of player he is, his potential, the attitude he showed when he was previously here to develop himself,” said Edwards. “He embraces fully the direction the club wants to go in.”

All of Leeds’s signings this summer have agreed two-year deals, underlining the club’s long-term aim as they look to bounce back to the top flight at the first time of asking and then set the wheels in motion of consolidation.

“We are building for the future so we have yearly objectives but ultimately we are looking to develop the club,” continued Edwards.

“We are looking to support the players that we are bringing in by giving them time to develop. But we need to be in a position where we are looking to re-establish ourselves in the Premiership. So we have to provide that stability to the players coming in that they are confident and happy that we are going to support them over a two-year period rather than just the short term.”

Allied with a fresh injection of youth, Edwards is hoping players like Mackay, Michael Stephenson, Mike MacDonald and Scott Barrow are still carrying the scars of last season’s relegation.

He said: “There is a bit more hunger and desire to re-establish the club where we want it to belong. There is a realisation that they have to prove they are capable of playing in the Premiership, and that little bit of pride doesn’t hurt.

“But equally, a number of them are proven Premiership performers and the loyalty they have shown to the club will stand them in good stead.

“A number of good things happened over the past two or three seasons but equally this is an opportunity to re-evaluate how we want to move forward as a club and start afresh with a new outlook. This is a new group of players who understand what it is to play for Leeds having come through the Academy and the job for the coaching staff is to support and develop them to push for promotion.”