Everyone at school is very proud of our Year 11 rugby captain DECLAN O’DONNELL who has been selected to represent English Schools in two Easter test matches against France. The action kicks off at Belle Vue, Wakefield, on Friday April 3 (2.00pm) and continues at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle in Castleford on Tuesday April 7 (2.00pm).

Declan has shown great loyalty to St Edmund Arrowsmith over the last five years, and has not missed a single match in his five years at the school, including winning the National Champion Schools Cup in 2013, and the North-West Counties Cup in 2013 and 2014. He has also played club rugby for Wigan St Pats and is in the U16s Scholarship squad at Wigan Warriors.

England Youth coach Shane Eccles said: “It was a tough job selecting the squad for the forthcoming games against France. With so much quality on offer now at Youth level I’m excited to see what these players are capable of. The lads will be going into camp at the end of March and we’ll be working hard on and off the field to get things right before that first match in Wakefield. We know the French will bring over a strong and physical team so our attitude and work rate will need to be 100 per cent to match this. I’m really looking forward to this series and I hope plenty of fans come out to see what a bright future Rugby League has in the players representing England Youth.”

You can see the full article and the rest of the squad by following this link to the England RL website.

http://www.englandrl.co.uk/article/42353/england-youth-to-face-france

Declan joins a select band of players from Edmund Arrowsmith who have gained English Schools RL honours while at school:

Chris Bretherton (1985)
Iyan Green (1988)
Anthony Price (1993)
Martin Carney (1994 & 1995)
Liam Bretherton (1995)
Karl Fitzpatrick (1997)
Shaun Briscoe (1999)
Jay Duffy (2002)
Darrell Goulding (2004)
Jamie Foster (2006)
Jonathan Ford (2010)
Joe Bretherton (2012)
Oliver Gildart (2012)
Lewis Fairhurst (2013)

With apologies to others I might have missed, there a few other famous names who were not picked up at school but have since gone on to represent their country at academy or full international level:
John Duffy (Eddies 1991-96)
Joe Burgess (2006 – 2011)
Luke Thompson (2006 – 2011)