THE initial intake of five students into the Bees Rugby Scholarship seem to be thriving.

The quintet – Will Bentley, Connor Fry and Byron Finn are at Craven College, while Dom Walker is at St Bede's School and Kyle Littlewood at Pudsey Priesthorpe School – have been training since pre-season with Bradford & Bingley's senior squad.

Bees coach Ali Macdonald said: "We have expected these boys to make a step up to train with the seniors and I am delighted to say they haven't looked out of place in this environment.

"I hope with the investment the club is making in the boys, we will see some development and improvements in all aspects of their rugby abilities as the season progresses.

"Perhaps in the past, youngsters have been thrown in the deep end without any real support, so that may be one of the reasons so many players drop out of the sport when they finish colts rugby.

"We hope this scheme will help some really promising youngsters stay with us at Wagon Lane and keep playing the great game of rugby."

The Bees see the scholarship scheme as a way to bridge the gap between colts and senior rugby and find the best ways to help promising 17 and 18-year-olds step into open-age rugby and to prosper in the adult game.

Yet the Wagon Lane club do not see the scholarship being limited to five players and would like to see it expanding each season.

Each of the players receives nine months' membership at the Next Generation gym in Baildon and will receive two sessions a week with personal trainer and rugby conditioning coach Ben Nabozny.

Additionally, all training and playing kit will be provided by the Bees, as well as giving each player free playing membership.

Each scholarship player is partnered with a mentor from the Bees' senior squad to try and guide them through their first season of senior rugby.

Bradford & Bingley head of rugby Martin Whitcombe said: "There seems to be a growing trend in a few local clubs of just throwing money at players without developing much home-grown talent.

"To some extent, we want to do the opposite and have as many players as possible who have played their first game of rugby in a Bees shirt as an eight-year-old – and possibly 30 years later to be still having a run-out in a veterans XV.

"We hope the scholarship can help us identify a group of quality youngsters each season that make the leap into our senior squad and perhaps by the time they are 20 or 21 they are starting for the first XV.

"If we can find two or three each season who can make it into the first team, we are regenerating our top side with home-grown players every five seasons.

"We also want to pull through as many players as we can into other senior sides so we build a thriving second, third or whatever number XV because these are the guys that make your club and become the backbone of the rugby club for years down the line."