It is a production line which has seen Harri O’Connor, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Kemsley Mathias, Jac Price and Morgan Jones all roll off it in recent times and into the Scarlets’ senior team.
Now the west Walians have announced the names of a new intake of players.
There are eight fresh faces in the region’s contracted academy squad for the 2022-23 season — prop Yestyn Cook, second row Will Evans, openside Keanu Evans, fly-half Steffan Jac Jones and full-back Iori Badham from the Parc y Scarlets U16s programme and Isaac Young (hooker), Joe Rees (hooker) and Ioan Lewis (tight-head prop) from the U18s.
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Five of the eight are home-grown products who have come through from grassroot clubs, colleges and schools within the Scarlets region and impressed during last season’s academy age-grade games and training.
Young, Will Evans and Cook have come on board as part of the region’s close relationship with the Welsh exiles.
There are also a tranche of players heading into the second year of their academy contracts.
Scarlets’ development pathway manager Kevin George said: “All the players have stood out during our age-grade programmes and we are looking forward to working closely with the boys as they continue their development with us.
“We are extremely proud that the academy continues to produce professional players, not just for the Scarlets, but also for Wales and the British & Irish Lions. Seven of the match-day 23 that played in Wales’ historic win over the Springboks in Bloemfontein last month were with us in the Scarlets’ academy.
“The likes of Harri O’Connor, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Kemlsey Mathias, Jac Price and Morgan Jones have all recently come through the academy and are now playing regularly for the senior side; Archie Hughes and Lewis Morgan, who are in the fourth year of the programme, featured in the URC last season, while Callum Williams has just represented Wales 7s at the Commonwealth Games.
“All the boys coming in know they need to work hard to realise their dreams of playing professional rugby, but we are excited by the talent that we have not just in this contracted group but the players in the selected age-grade teams throughout the wider academy.”
Despite playing for the senior team last season and being drafted into Wales’ squad to tour South Africa amid injuries, tighthead O’Connor is still listed as part of the Scarlets’ transition group of players who are moving into professional rugby.
His brother Sam is also part of that cohort, along with talented scrum-halves Hughes and Harri Williams.
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