Young Gun: Jamie Shillcock – Worcester scrum-half

Juggling school and rugby is part of Jamie Shillcock’s routine but the Warwick School and Worcester scrum-half will take it to a whole new level tomorrow.
At 1.30pm he is due to sit his history A-level before racing to Bristol to take part in the Championship final‘s first leg for the Warriors.
Last week, the 17-year-old made history when he came off the bench in the semi-final second leg against London Scottish to become the youngest player ever in the Championship play-offs.
Worcester had lost their starting No.9s, Charlie Mulchrone and Jonny Arr, through injury and suspension after the first leg against the Exiles leaving Dean Ryan with only Jean-Baptiste Bruzulier in his squad.
Shillcock had only played for the Warriors academy but Ryan trusted the youngster to deliver and called the school to pull him out of a tutorial for a training session.
“When I saw Charlie getting injured and Jonny being banned it did cross my mind that I could be called up but I never thought it’d actually happen,” Shillcock told The Rugby Paper.
“It came out of the blue. I was in a lesson and my director of rugby at Warwick Mark Nasey came in to tell me the Warriors had called and they wanted me to train with them.
“There was a rush to register me in time to play. It’s been a mad couple of weeks but I’ve really enjoyed it.
“It was great to come on in front of a packed Sixways for the last five minutes. My first involvement was a clearance kick so I made sure it went out far enough. After that it flew by and it was over in a blink. Wednesday should be interesting with my exam in the afternoon and the game in the evening. Hopefully I’ll be able to get through it and make it to Worcester in time for the bus to Bristol.”
Being at Warwick School since the juniors, Shillcock took up rugby aged 7 and progressed all the way to the 1st XV which played in the NatWest Cup final against Dulwich last year.
This season, as well as linking up with the Worcester academy, he has already played for England U18s, Counties and England U19s.
This year will already go down as a breakthrough year for Shillcock but he now wants to top it all by earning himself a professional Warriors contract.
He said: “As a scrum-half the basics are crucial to be successful so I’ve been working a lot on my passing as well as kicking with both feet.
“Bossing the forwards is also important and it was weird at first as they are much bigger and older than me but they expected me to do it so it put me at ease.
“I’m very grateful to Dean and the coaches for giving me such an opportunity and I hope I can do them justice over the next two games to help Worcester return to the Premiership.
“I’m not sure whether I’ll be at the club next season yet so hopefully the next couple of games will help me secure a contract.
“Getting on last weekend only reassured me it’s the career path I want to follow. I’ve applied to university just in case but I’d love to give playing professional rugby a go first.”
NICK VERDIER