Tony Russ' record for producing talented youngsters spoke for itself at Harlequins.

Now, after taking over from academy manager Geoff Moon, he has set his targets high as he starts to work his magic at Bristol.

At Quins, Russ guided the development of Mike Brown, Ugo Monye, Tom Williams, Charlie Amesbury, Tosh Masson, Jordan Turner-Hall, Alex Rogers, Mark Lambert, George Robson, Chris Robshaw, Tom Guest and Adrian Jarvis.

Two of those players have been capped by England and now he wants to see a Bristol youngster come through and represent the full national side.

At the moment, Bristol have one England Under-20, Luke Eves, while Dave Attwood and Chevvy Pennycook have also been capped at that age level, plus four players with England Under-18s experience.

"My aims and ambitions are extremely high. I am looking beyond the Premiership – I want to try and get guys into national sides," said Russ.

"It is a sad statistic that apart from Exeter, which has only been an academy for less than a year, Bristol has the only academy that has not produced an international player.

"This is something I want to change. Playing for Bristol is pretty good but playing for England is better.

"I want to get these Under-18s through to England Under-20s and then on to the Bristol first team and into international rugby. That's the inspiration.

"The academy is being funded to an extent by the Rugby Football Union, so there are also some financial benefits for Bristol. The more players you get through to internationals, the more money you get coming into the club. The academy is self-generating."

Russ, unlike Moon, will not spend his time coaching players from the academy. That duty will fall to club analyst and Clifton player-coach John Barnes.

The former Saracens and Leicester boss will act as a facilitator, arranging the programmes to make sure the youngsters coming through the system receive the best backing and coaching, and he knows Bristol will reap the benefits.

Russ said: "I look back to my work at Harlequins academy. There are nine players in their match-day 22 that came through the Harlequins academy. That's a fantastic result. If you could mirror that at Bristol within a year or two that would ease a lot of the financial pressures on the club. It costs a few £1,000 per year to develop a young player rather than go and buy somebody in for loads of money.

"You need a few of the superstars to come in, but when a club is based on a bedrock of its own academy products, it is financially sensible and it is good for team morale and spirit.

"They have all grown-up together. If you look at the Harlequins team at the moment it is based on that structure. All their young players have graduated through together. It was the same at Leicester in the old days – less so now."

He added: "We have Luke Eves, for example. Previously he was not considered to be in the academy because he moved into the first team, but he's still only 19. There's lots of work we can do to help him develop. We are working from that age group right down to Under-16s.

"We have good boys coming through. We cannot let them join other clubs and must make sure they stay with Bristol. To do that we have to provide a good programme and development structure to make sure they progress.

"There are ways in which the academy can be improved. I will be bring my own ideas and experiences to the structure of the academy and take it forward from where it is now.

"We have a nice little group of players. I am looking now at the next batch of players to come through."

Russ knows his rugby. While a teacher, he coached Saracens for six years and guided the north London club to the second division title with a 100 per cent record in 1989.

He led Sarries to a fourth-placed finish in their maiden year in the top-flight before he became director of rugby at Leicester. The Tigers won the Pilkington Cup in 2003 and the league title two years later.

Russ also had spells in charge at Waterloo and Ulster and coached the London Division, England Under-21s and England Students. He had retired before Bristol persuaded him to act as a chief scout for the club last summer.

Russ added: "It came rather as a surprise. I was appointed in the summer as chief scout and I was beavering away at that.

"Then when Geoff announced his plans to go home at Christmas, I was very pleased to be asked to take over. I thought I'd retired from this sort of thing. It is quite exciting and I am really enjoying it at the moment."

But Russ has no plans to make a return to senior coaching.

"I enjoy working with this age group. I have worked from the top to the bottom in terms of age and ability. I am very comfortable at this stage. I don't want to go out and put a tracksuit on and coach.

"I'm not doing that any more. I do an administrative/management role.

"You could easily define my role as the identification and development of elite rugby players; English, Welsh, any nationality. I want to bring the best young rugby players into Bristol and develop them as fast as possible into Premiership players of the future.

"I want to get a group of youngsters with talent. Helping them achieve is very satisfying. I am an educator. I enjoy seeing the successes of young people."