Youth development key for Scotland

The Scotland U20 squad replaces the former Scotland Academy and the youth team will play their counterparts from England and Wales in February and March next year.

The trial day will take the form of a skills training in the morning with a game in the afternoon and the squad for the coming season will be selected at the end of the month.

Jo Hull, Scotland Women Performance Manager.: This is an exciting time for the womens game in Scotland. We now have the under-18 regional programme up and running which will feed into the new under-20 set-up that will, in turn, go into building Scotland Women.

Through the under-20s were looking to generate more players who can compete with their peers at an international level. Were aiming for more strength in depth by identifying talented players at a younger age and getting them involved earlier in the high performance programme.

A squad of 26 U20 players will be selected from the trial and those players will take part in a very full training programme ever the winter before playing a couple of international friendlies next year.

Hull added: Generally, were aiming to be a lot more focussed around elite development and the associated educational process including strength and conditioning and lifestyle support.

Its all about improvement for the long-term and making womens rugby at this level in Scotland more sustainable rather than depending on World Cup cycles.

To register for this weekend's trial game seeHERE.

Scotland U20 fixtures 2011

Weekend of 13 February Wales (h)

Weekend of 13 March England (a)