Old Rutlishians new director of rugby Stacia Long will be keeping a strict eye on the club’s stars of tomorrow.

Old Ruts have more than 500 players in the youth set-up, giving Long not only a large pool of talent, but a big role in the club’s future.

Long is responsible for ensuring that the club keep their youngsters and give them with every opportunity to progress into the senior side.

She said: “The aim of my role is to help build success at all age groups throughout the club.

“We currently have more than 500 mini and junior rugby players at the club and our main focus is to make sure that we can retain these players for as long as possible.”

To help with the task, Old Ruts have created a partnership with the RFU Retention Programme.

Long said: “Players are at the centre of everything at the club and their success is our main priority.

“We want to encourage as many players as possible to make the transition from junior to senior rugby and stay with us at Old Ruts.

“We want to keep talented players here, so we are working hard on improving the culture of the senior side to allow this transition be become smoother.”

She added: “At the moment six to 10 juniors are progressing into the seniors which is good, but we want more to stay with us.”