Latest news with #EQP
Telegraph
29-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Revealed: Premiership teams playing the most English talent
All 10 Premiership clubs will reach the desired benchmark of England-qualified players (EQPs) this season with teams fielding plenty of home-grown talent. According to provisional data maintained by the Rugby Football Union, which has been seen by Telegraph Sport and is subject to checks, Champions Cup finalists Northampton Saints have averaged around 19 EQPs per game across the entire season. Newcastle Falcons are up at a similar level, with Sale Sharks and Bath just behind them. Sitting third with one round to go, Sale are on course for the play-offs. Bath have topped the Premiership table, securing a home semi-final to go with their Premiership Cup and Challenge Cup victories. Both of those clubs, as well as Saints, have explicitly leant on their academy production line, which is regarded as an increasingly important strategy in an era of streamlined squads and more sensible spending. Premiership regulations, as part of the recent professional game partnership (PGP), decree that teams must register an average of 15 EQPs over each 'qualification period'. The two qualification periods effectively split the season into two halves, with Premiership and Champions Cup or Challenge Cup fixtures counting towards the requisite mark. Premiership Cup squads are scrutinised, yet do not contribute officially. Clubs face fines of £250,000 should they average below 15 EQPs in any given qualification period. For the 2025-26 season, these fines will be supplemented by points deductions if that club have previously dipped below 15 EQPs in a qualification period. Two more developments of the new PGP have been an expanded England Under-20 elite player squad (EPS) as well as individual development plans (IDPs) for players of interest to the England set-up, which aim to help club and country collaborate more closely over development plans. Bath succeeding with English talent Johann van Graan, Bath's head of rugby, has not once across the entire season assembled a match-day 23 featuring fewer than 15 EQPs and has handed opportunities to several youngsters. Full-back Tom de Glanville, centre Will Butt, scrum-half Tom Carr-Smith and the versatile Ciaran Donoghue are among the Bath academy products to have enjoyed seminal years at senior level. Donoghue was on loan with Dings Crusaders in National Two, the fourth tier of the English pyramid, last season and shot to prominence after an injury to another local talent, Sam Harris. Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, last week suggested that Donoghue, a Salisbury-born 22-year-old, was in the frame for an international call-up in the coming weeks. Elsewhere among the Bath squad, Will Stuart has been picked for the British and Irish Lions, while Will Muir and Max Ojomoh will also push for involvement on England's forthcoming summer tour to Argentina and the United States. Guy Pepper has hit the ground running since joining from Newcastle Falcons and there are high hopes for Billy Sela and Kepu Tuipulotu, both of whom made senior debuts this season while still eligible for England Under-20. Finn Russell, Cameron Redpath, Thomas du Toit and Quinn Roux are among Bath's non-EQP contingent. However, Josh Bayliss, the Scotland back-rower, and Archie Griffin, the Wales tighthead prop, whose association with Bath began at the age of 13, represent two more non-EQPs that came through the club's academy. No club averaged below 15 in the first qualification period and all 10 should clear 15 for the second qualification period, too. This is partly due to a credits system, from which a club are credited if a player is injured on England duty, at a training camp or serving an official rest period following a Test window. For example, Leicester Tigers have received a credit for each match since the Six Nations on account of George Martin's absence. Bath have been granted the same because Ollie Lawrence ruptured his Achilles tendon during England's win over Italy. Northampton were granted seven additional EQPs for the visit to Harlequins in round 11, boosting their figure for the fixture beyond 23. This is because Alex Coles, Fraser Dingwall, Tommy Freeman, Curtis Langdon, Alex Mitchell, Henry Pollock and Ollie Sleightholme were at England's pre-Six Nations training camp in Girona. Leicester bottom of the pile Leicester Tigers are towards the bottom of the rankings and have fielded fewer than 15 EQPs on six occasions this season, though that has been boosted to 15 or beyond by credits for all but the loss to Bristol Bears in round eight of the Premiership. There were 14 EQPs in the Tigers squad for that match. In round 11 of the Premiership against Gloucester, Michael Cheika only had 11 EQPs in his match-day 23. That was boosted up to 15, however, because Freddie Steward, Joe Heyes, George Martin and Ollie Chessum were all involved in an England camp. Jack van Poortvliet had been named in the training squad by Borthwick, yet withdrew due to an injury sustained on club duty. There will be scope for Tigers to improve these figures next season given the nature of their turnover in personnel. Julián Montoya, the Argentina captain, is leaving for Pau, with Jamie Blamire of Newcastle Falcons, a senior England international, arriving in the East Midlands. Tarek Haffar, the loosehead prop who has represented England A, is another new recruit from Northampton Saints as James Cronin retires. Meanwhile, former England age-grade regulars such as scrum-half Ollie Allan and lock Lewis Chessum have been promoted from the senior academy. Bristol are the side to have most often recorded fewer than 15 EQPs without additional credits, doing so in three matches: the first two rounds of the Champions Cup, against Leinster and La Rochelle, and then in their 54-24 thrashing of Tigers in round eight of the Premiership. Bristol fielded 14 EQPs in each game, which Gloucester have also done twice. An EQP is defined in Premiership regulations as a player 'confirmed by the RFU to be eligible to be selected and play for England in accordance with World Rugby Regulation 8 as further particularised in EQP protocol'.
BBC News
26-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Exeter back John agrees new contract
Exeter back Dan John has agreed a new contract with the Premiership 23-year-old former Wales youth international has played 19 times for the Chiefs in all has also spent time on dual registration at Championship side Cornish Pirates. Injuries have restricted John to just two appearances this season - one in the league and one in the Premiership Rugby Cup. "Dan really started to impress towards the tail end of last season," Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Sport."When we've been looking to introduce him into the team and him having opportunities he's actually picked up a couple of niggling injuries over the course of the season."He's still a guy we see fitting into our back three, he gives us some strength in depth there going forward."He's a young player who we feel is still improving, so all of those things are good indicators for us that it would be good to keep him around,"I think he's becomes EQP (an English-qualified player) at some stage this season as well, which is obviously another benefit to us, so there's lots of reasons for us to keep working with him and for him to be an ambitious part of plans going forward."
