A Guide To Scouting U20 Players

Kia Ora,

This is a quick guide to scouting U20 players and trying to make the most out of the youth academy to produce the next U20 superstar.

Facilities and Staff
The critical thing is to get the facilities up to level 3 and hire a level 3 coach. I'd consider this a must-have for the youth academy. You might as well not even bother with the youth academy at all unless you're willing to take it all the way to the max. You don't have to take Scouts and Managers all the way to level 3 if you want to save some money (though I think level 2 scouts are needed at minimum). Just don't skimp on the facilities and coach.

The Best Scouting Times
Short Answer: Every even-numbered season. Your first scout should be in Round 2, Day 1. You can then do it again in Round 2, Day 2 and then each round after that.

Long Answer: The goal is to maximise the amount of training a player can receive before a World Cup. Scouting players as 16 year olds in even-numbered seasons mean they turn 20 in World Cup years.  Scouting in odd-numbered seasons puts them in limbo, they'll be too young for one World Cup and then too old for the next.

The reason we suggest holding off scouting until Round 2, Day 1 is that when players are scouted, their birthday is randomly selected from the 7 prior days. Scouting during round 1 means there is a chance that a player's birthday will fall in Round 16 of the previous season and puts them in the limbo I talked about above.

Now, the scouting week runs from Tuesday to Monday. During this period you can scout one player and once you hit midnight on Monday and roll into Tuesday you can start scouting again. This means that on Round 2, Day 1 you can scout your first player since you'll have 100% certainty that they'll have the right birthday. Then on Round 2, Day 2 the new scouting week starts and you can scout again.

How Many Stars To Use?
The general consensus is about 30-50 stars for each player. The more stars you use to scout with the probability/likelihood of the youth player being good increases, however there is no guarantee of that. The 30-50 level generally delivers good players and allows you to scout a few possibilities. Note, stars have no influence on elements like leadership, discipline, aggressiveness, height, or weight. Only skills.

I Want a Certain Type of Player
Players are generally replaced "like-for-like", so if you promote a prop to your seniors then he'll be replaced with another prop. Promote your tallest players if you want a lock, promote your heaviest if you want a front rower, promote those with high kicking skills if you want to train a kicker. Get ready for some disappointment though, you'll likely see some pretty low heights and weights for these supposed forwards (along with some very high heights and weights too)

Training
An important note on training is that there is a cap on training in the youth academy. Once skills have hit 14 then youth training will no longer be effective on that skill. Keep that in mind when setting your training. The training is extremely valuable so it'll be a shame to waste it!

Default Lineups
When you scout your player, the game will automatically put them on the bench of your youth squad. Change that! Your player should be in the default starting lineup to get the most out of in-game training and experience. The in-game training is different for each position so put them in a position that you want them to ultimately develop them in. Set your default intensity at Normal.

When Do I Promote?
Consensus has shifted on this in recent seasons. Training in the youth academy is remarkably efficient, so keeping them in the youth academy until they turn 19 is viable. You'll need a youth manager for this as you'll want to be able to manage their training to make sure they are making the most of training (see the training note above). This will produce a well-rounded player. There are some scenarios where you want to produce a player with more specialist skills (like a lock or kicker), it's recommended that you promote these players once they turn 17 and get them into 10x IT sessions as soon as possible.

Feel free to ask on this offsite if you have questions about anything. No stupid questions here.

Hi everyone -- have a read of the above and let me know if you think any changes should be made. I'm going to email every NZ manager this weekend with a link to this article so if you think anything is wrong or unclear then let me know.

In the "How Many Stars To Use?" section I would change it to 'The more stars you use to scout with the probability/likelihood of the youth player being good increases, however there is no guarantee of that...'

Sounds good to me. Changed.

Looks good overall!

I have something to say about when to pull, though. In short, I don't think any player should be pulled at 17. I'll write in more detail later today (probably tomorrow NZ time).

EDIT. Sorry, haven't had the time yet.

Yeah, going over your numbers again (prompted by Pantherus) it seems as long as you're willing to TT skills like Jumping or Kicking in the YA then you're bound to be better off leaving players there.

News released. It would be good, Bren, if you can send them an email reminder once S30 has started

The South African perspective on the Youth Academy
The Pacific Islands perspective on the Youth Academy
Similar to what I've written above but touches on some issues that I haven't.