What opportunities exist today for a school leaver to follow a career in professional sport?

Question

make specific reference to the game of rugby

Answer 1

I would say that, unless you were exceptionally talented, it would be very difficult to make a professional career playing rugby coming straight out of school. The key thing is to get spotted by selectors and scouts because, without this, you are unlikely to get any offers to join a professional club. In order to do this, you will usually have to be playing at a prety good level (maybe county schools or being part of the development squad at a mid to higher level club) because scouts don't often just turn up to any old game on the off-chance.

The usual progression from school is to join a competitive club - ideally one of the professional or semi-professional clubs or one of their "feeder" clubs. If you are going on to university, join their rugby club and try out for Combined Universities.

The key here is visibility. You have to become known by the clubs and their scouts. This could be by working your way up internally through the club structure (but few professional clubs still run 6-8 junior sides like they did a few years back) or by playing for representative sides.

As you did not specify that you actually wanted to PLAY professionally, another way of getting involved in rugby as a career is to work for the RFU. Keep an eye on their web site. http://www.rfu.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/...