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The Scottish Rugby Schools Conference structures established for the 2015-16 season grouped schools based on the development structures they have in place, the volume of teams they operate and results over recent seasons. The fixture programmes arranged by Scottish Rugby guaranteed blocks of 'school v school' fixtures in the autumn phase of the season.

History
In December 2013 Scottish Rugby launched its strategic initiative ‘Youth Rugby – A strategy for Schools’. Former Scotland rugby coach Frank Hadden conducted the review for Scottish Rugby.

In recent years youth rugby has had many changes in competition structure mainly based on the needs and wants of participating teams, some teams have thrived, some teams have struggled but change has been a constant and it is obvious that the current structure continues to be affected by; withdrawal of teams from leagues, weather, lack of competitive fixtures for some teams, a disjointed approach to fixturing, a reluctance by some to play on a regular basis. There is no doubt that the structure for youth rugby has reached a point where a radical change in approach is required to bring stability to our game.

The small South Ayrshire school, Carrick Academy, is being seen as how to achieve with rugby in state school rugby. Backed by Murrayfield’s Cashback Schools of Rugby scheme the school has flourished to the extent that it now fields teams at every age level for boys in addition to championing girls’ rugby. Due to that depth it has been included in the Black Conference competing against other west of Scotland schools with a strong rugby programmes.

Format
Schools were put into tiers;

Tier 1 (T1) Secondary Schools with 10 boys teams or more.

Tier 2 (T2) Secondary Schools with up to 10 boys teams.

Tier 3 (T3) Secondary Schools with 5 boys teams, one at each age group S1, S2, S3, U16, U18

Tier 4 (T4) Secondary Schools with less than 5 boys teams.