Sunday 28 January saw the first playing event in the Kent U16 Girls Developing Player Program (DPP) for this season. 

The England Rugby DPP is a two year program for girls in the U16 age group and is the first step on the player development pathway for female players aspiring to play for England one day. Players receive additional training sessions on top of their club training, and up to three playing opportunities each season as part of the program. 

In Kent, we have almost 90 players in the DPP representing 17 different Kent clubs, working across three training centres: Coastal (based out of Ashford RFC), Central (Aylesford Bulls RFC) and City (Dartford Valley RFC). 

For the first playing event, the centres faced each other in a Turbo Tens round robin format, with each centre fielding two teams for a fast, furious and highly competitive contest. There were great skills on show across the games, with the players putting into practice their core run/catch/pass skills as well as some huge hits. The smiles on the faces at the end said it all.

The next playing event is on Sunday 18 February at Aylesford Bulls RFC, where the centres will once again face each other in the more-familiar 15-a-side format. The final playing opportunity in March will see Kent welcome Essex to really put their skills to the test.