Clapton pick an exciting blend of youth and experience with 7 of the 18 man squad being 21 or younger, and 12 of the 18 man squad being products of the Youth Section.

Head Coach Marcus Tobin commented “It is important to get a balance of youth and experience and with players coming back from injuries, we are starting to get even greater competition for places.

The younger guys are developing well and this has been accelerated by the guidance and encouragement of the more experienced players within the squad.

As coaches we acknowledge how hard the players are working showing great commitment, examples of this are the additional practice arranged in between Christmas and new year (December 29th), working at “Farm Fitness” last Saturday and defying the elements last Tuesday to complete a challenging practice.

However we are aware that we have stern challenges over the remaining 8 games and that this level of work and commitment has to be maintained.”

Commenting on the forthcoming Maldon game Tobin commented, “We expect a strong challenge from Maldon, in October’s away game we were comprehensively outplayed in certain aspects during the first 60 minutes of the game, but came back strongly in the last quarter (Clapton eventually won the game 33 points to 7), so practice has been focused this week to get us a prepared against a well coached and organised team.”

7 under 21, 12/18 from EUCRFC youth.