Northampton Saints: Dusty Hare will 'take us to a new level' - Mallinder
Saints boss Jim Mallinder says Tigers legend Dusty Hare will take the club's youth development to a "new level."
Hare's appointment as academy recruitment and development manager is part of a major overhaul of the club's academy after the recent departure of academy manager Rob Hunter to the England youth set-up.
Mallinder has tempted Hare from East Midlands rivals Leicester where he put together the best academy in the country with a continual conveyor belt of local talent pouring into not just the Tigers side but England as well.
Saints want Hare to do the same at Franklin's Gardens. After signing a new deal at the club until 2013, Mallinder has quickly implemented the next step of his plan to turn the club into a permanent fixture at the top of the Guinness Premiership.
"Dusty has a superb record of talent identification and development that is second to none," said Mallinder. "He established Leicester as one of the main producers of young English talent and I am confident he will continue that at Franklin's Gardens, building on the foundations established over the past few years.
"We want young, talented, local players wearing the Northampton jersey after coming through the academy system. Dusty will take our youth development to a new level."
The emergence of Jimmy's End giant Courtney Lawes shows the talent is around, but instead of one or two in the Saints side in the long term Mallinder wants the core of the Northampton side made up of local youngsters.
Hare is a Leicester legend, notching 394 appearances for Tigers and scoring 4,507 points on the way to setting a world record of 7,137 accrued during a 13-year career that is unlikely ever to be beaten.
He won 25 caps for England as well as touring New Zealand with the British Lions in 1983 and has been a key figure in the Tigers' youth development programme since 1994. Hare helped set up the Tigers Academy in 2000 and has been chief scout for four years.
Hare, who turned Saints forwards coach and ex-Tiger Dorian West from a flanker to a hooker while boss of Nottingham, said: "I'm excited because you have very good men at Northampton. Jim Mallinder has asked me to be involved, and I hope that I can bring my expertise to scout players and to bring through younger players in the academy.
"It's very important that we make local players better players and get them involved at Saints. You can't buy the pride local lads have when they pull on the Saints shirt. When they come and watch Saints as youngsters they dream of playing for the club and hopefully we can make that dream possible.
"We can look forward to things progressing that will hopefully make Northampton a bigger and a better club."
Scrum-half Alan Dickens will work with Hare as academy manager. The 33-year-old will carry on playing until the end of the season before hanging up his boots to take on the role full-time. Grant Seely will continue as the third member of the management team.
Dickens, who has is head coach of Midlands One East side Derby and has been coaching Saints' elite player development groups, said: "As well as being proud to play for my father's and my grandfather's club, I will now have the additional pride of helping to develop the Saints of the future. I've wanted to coach for some time and have been developing that over the past few years with schools and at Derby. After being a teacher an academy coaching role was something I'd been keen to do and hopefully I'll be a success. It will be a new and challenging experience for me."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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