With eight players in the south west squad and one in the North, Academy coach Phil Greenaway is hopeful of further international honours for Gloucester's young stars this year.
"Gloucester is a hot bed for rugby and we have a wealth of talent in the area," he told www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk.
"Last year we had a few boys involved in the 18 group (Henry Trinder, Dave Lewis, Dan Williams, Charlie Sharples and Ollie Winterbottom), who are now starting to come through with the aid of a full-time training programme.
"This current group of 18 year-olds are extremely talented and we are hoping that a few of them go on to bigger and better things. We want somebody to come through and wear a Gloucester shirt so hopefully we can continue the club's tradition of bringing home grown players through the junior set-up into the first team environment."
The south west U18's met last weekend at Hartpury College for a training weekend and will start their Divisional programme against the Midlands in December at Broadstreet Rugby Club in Coventry.
Scrum-half Jordi Pasqualin (King's School, Gloucester) and hooker Dave Blackwell (Hartpury College) have both been involved in the recent England Conference games against Wales and France and are both tipped to be capped later on in the year during the Six Nations tournament.
The other south west representatives from Gloucester's Academy are Jack Bromley (centre), Sean Knight (prop), Danny Wright (second row), Leigh Green (prop), Sam Arnott (scrum-half), Mike Craven (scrum-half), Reuben Haile (wing) and Duncan Peters (centre).
