The 'Came through the RFU Championship' XV
The RFU Championship has received a lot of attention over the past few days after the Rugby Football Union’s decision to cut its funding of the league by almost half.
Since then, a host of players, chairmen and pundits have commented on how damaging this could be for England, the Gallagher Premiership and the league itself.
The majority of current England players have had stints in the Championship, as it is a preferred option of Premiership teams to loan players to the division below. However, there are also many that have risen through the ranks at RFU Championship clubs, and used that as a platform for their careers.
So here is an XV of players who came from Championship teams:
1 MAKO VUNIPOLA – BRISTOL
Before being signed by Saracens, the England, and British and Irish Lions loosehead Mako Vunipola came through Bristol, playing in the playoff loss to Exeter Chiefs in 2010.
2 DAVE WARD- CORNISH PIRATES
While Harlequins’ Dave Ward did not come through Cornish Pirates, having previously played for Bath, Northampton Saints and Sale Sharks, it was his three years in Penzance that attracted the attention of Harlequins. He arrived at the Stoop in 2012 and has been a great servant to the club ever since.
3 THOMAS FRANCIS – DONCASTER KNIGHTS
The Wales international and current Exeter Chiefs prop Thomas Francis was born in Yorkshire and played for Doncaster Knights and London Scottish before being snapped up by Rob Baxter at Exeter in 2014. Honorary mention: Ben Alexander- Bedford Blues.
4 DANNY GREWCOCK- COVENTRY
Before a distinguished career with Saracens, Bath, England, and the British and Irish Lions, Rugby World Cup winning lock Danny Grewcock spent three years in the Championship (then National One) with Coventry.
5 MOURITZ BOTHA – BEDFORD BLUES
The South African born England international Mouritz Botha started his career in England with Bedford Blues before moving to Saracens in 2009.
6 COLIN CHARVIS – LONDON WELSH
One of many Wales greats to play in the English capital with London Welsh, the Birmingham born Colin Charvis started his career there in the 90s before moving to Swansea and later becoming Wales captain.
7 AKAPUSI QERA – BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL
One of Gloucester’s great flankers this millennium, the former Fiji captain Akapusi Qera spent a season with Birmingham & Solihull (then Pertemps Bees) before moving to Kingsholm and later Toulouse.
8 NICK EASTER – ORRELL
The Manchester club Orrell were a feature of the RFU Championship during the 90s and early 2000s, even finishing second in 2004. Off the back of that season, their No8 Nick Easter was spotted by Harlequins and made the move up to the Premiership.
9 DANNY CARE – OTLEY
Although England and Harlequins scrumhalf Danny Care never strictly played in the Championship with Otley, having moved to fellow Yorkshire outfit Leeds, he did play for the club in his youth.
10 GARETH STEENSON – EXETER CHIEFS
Now a mainstay in the Premiership (and the fifth all-time points scorer), Gareth Steenson was part of Exeter back in their Championship days and has been with them through all their glory. Seven years before Steenson kicked the winning penalty in the Premiership final, he kicked 24 points in the 2010 playoff second-leg against Bristol to secure promotion.
11 JOE COKANASIGA – LONDON IRISH
Now in his second season at Bath, the 22-year-old giant Joe Cokanasiga first announced himself in the Championship with London Irish, and a barnstorming 2016/17 saw him selected for Eddie Jones’ England team to tour Argentina.
12 TOM SHANKLIN – LONDON WELSH
The 70-cap former Wales centre Tom Shanklin began his career with London Welsh before moving to Saracens and then Cardiff Blues.
13 CHRIS WYLES – NOTTINGHAM
The former USA captain Chris Wyles began his professional career with Nottingham before moving to Northampton Saints and then Saracens in 2008, where he became a four-time Premiership winner and two-time Champions Cup winner.
14 SEAN LAMONT – ROTHERHAM
The 105-cap Scotland great Sean Lamont was a Rotherham player in the early 2000s, spending three years in Yorkshire before a move to Glasgow, where his career blossomed.
15 DAVID STRETTLE – ROTHERHAM
A benefit of Harlequins being relegated in 2005, was that the London club were exposed to some of the talent in the league below. After impressing for Rotherham that season, the future England winger David Strettle was signed by Harlequins after they earned promotion.
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not like Saffas have a long history of spouting absolute shite at any & every occasion. Oh wait… The dangers of an inferior third world education strike again.
15 Go to commentsI’m so glad we’re revisiting this. Really needs to be dissected further. I’m also so glad that a guy in the stands who wasn’t anywhere near the field when any of it would have been said (and even confirms this) has taken the lead and commented as Ireland. Definitely cleared it all up. This article would be hilarious if it wasn’t so misleading.
15 Go to commentsits such a shame he hasn’t achieved more success at club level. He’s really not been a potent finisher for a while now, but he’s still excellent in the kick chase. That’s the kind of skillset that generally only gets appreciated when you’re playing in premiership and european finals. I’m not sure whether the challenge cup counts given the quality of the competition seems lower than in previous years, but his duel with Mapimpi should be enthralling.
1 Go to commentsThe point is the irish players were arrogant,call it like you want sugar coat it aswell but they were you could see it in their way they handeled themselfs on the field when they got something right so dont tell me it was not arrogance it was,you can fool other people but not me,and to say to one of our players see you in the final put a nail in the coffin for this bullsh@t,just be grown men and accept it that you were arrogant,you could if seen it from a mile away, and then you lost to the allblacks what a cocky move that didnt work out for you ,Eben was right when he said u were arrogant,the point is you will deny it because you lost it all just grow some balls and move on we had won you lost accept it.
15 Go to comments“summer tour of North and South America” so its a summer tour of america?
1 Go to commentsEverybody is giving the Irish players the benefit of the doubt in ‘what they meant’, but none of these pundits or commentators offer the same courtesy to Eben. I don’t think Eben went, 1, 2, 3… etc. What might have happened is he didn’t count and when the 3rd or 5th guy said he went, hang on why are so many of them saying this… and then started to concentrate on it more and more as players continue to say it. So no, he didn’t count it, he realised many Irish players said it and made an assumption based on that… The Irish team was VERY confident at the time and I do believe they believed they were going to win the World Cup, which borders a bit on the arrogant side…
15 Go to commentsI can see how some of the Irish players would have said”see you in the final” as a gentle comment after a victory. It’s open to interpretation but it’s clumsy language. I don’t know the fella but I assure you Eben doesn’t have an axe to grind with Ireland. He has never been the media seeking pro. Oh and BTW it is I’ll be our winter in July so won’t be wet.
15 Go to comments*McCloskey*: _I saw this clip. Like, I wasn’t playing that game; I was in the stands…so you don't know sh!t in other words, infact you know just as much as Goode on this matter. I will believe the guy who was on the pitch when things were said as appose to two people speculating over what was said._
15 Go to comments@ turlough dream on buddy. Your boys are in for one tough time down in sa this summer…
15 Go to commentsI think Goode is looking to establish a platform for himself. Eben said “Probably” so that suggests he wasn’t counting. It’s an estimate Goode. I think even with your short and uneventful experience with the Sharks you probably realise winding up Saffas will get you some airtime. It’s a none event. Move on
15 Go to commentsRugby has never been as structured and synthetically pleasing as it is at this moment. The game is simply beautiful and messing with it too much will ruin it for everyone. I can't help but feel that over the past decade or so many rules have been changed to accommodate a certain hemisphere and counter another. Perhaps I am wrong but I somehow don’t think so.
2 Go to commentsNoted some excellent defensive steals from the Rebs last week against the Reds, largely J Canham, I think. It’s not a Rolls Royce but they are a real threat with their defensive line out at the beginning matches. What do you make of Canham Nick, WBs squad material?
83 Go to commentsCoin flip between Ardie and Scott Barrett. Both have their pros and cons, and both would probably be decent. Ardie has way more passion on the field, but that hasn’t always translated into the best decisions. They will both turn 34 at the next World Cup, so both will most likely have their best days a few years behind them. It’s hard to imagine now, but looking at young players coming through Ardie will probably be under the most pressure to retain his place in the team. Beauden Barrett also an outside chance if Razor sees him as the first choice 10.
7 Go to commentsQuality stuff from Flats. Rugby can’t replace football nor should we want it to. I think the ‘product’ (awful term sorry) now is absolutely fantastic. Growing the game shouldn’t be at the expense of losing its brutal beauty.
2 Go to commentsI think they’ll choose Scott Barret as captain, Ardie 7, Hoskins 8, Finau at 6.
7 Go to commentsSo what were saying is if you make it through to the play offs in Europe you’re likely to suffer at the tail end of the prem. No extra cash for playing in Europe, more chance of injury, fatiguing the team…while others not through rest up. whats the point??
1 Go to commentsClaims that Finau is a risky proposition are hyperbole. His tackles have been mostly perfectly timed and executed except for the Lynach one and that was a split-second out, certainly not 2 seconds. Social media criticism shows opposition fans are nervous about Finau’s impact. I see Jacobson and Blackadder as no.7s, they don’t have the power, size or dynamism to be 6 or 8 at Test level. Akira has shown he lacks the intuition and technique to play Tests. If he learnt to bend his back more and hit breakdowns and tackles low and hard, it would do wonders for his game. Finau is the standout option for 6 with Grace or Shields as his backup. I’d like to see Finau, Sotutu and Jacobson as an experimental back-row combo; lineout nous, dynamic ball carrying, hard defence, etc.
41 Go to commentsI find these articles so very interesting, giving a much more in depth series of insights than one can ever gain from “desktop” research. It is very significant that it is this English man that Joe Schmidt has turned to build the basement stability and reliability from the WB forwards that was so shredded during the Jones debacle. With his long period in Ireland, with both Leinster and Ireland, Schmidt will know Geoff Parling’s qualities as a player well, and he will have gone over, with a fine tooth comb, the mans time in Australia. This, one feels, will prove to be a shrewd decision. I’m particularly interested in Parling’s comments about the lineout, especially the differences in approach between the hemispheres. He talks about the impact of weather conditions on the type of lineout tactics employed. He is the right man to have preparing for a wet and windy game at Eden Park, the “Cake Tin”, or in Christchuch, or for that matter in Capetown. I must confess to being surprised by this comment though re Will Skelton: “ Is he a lineout jumper? No. But the lineout starts on the ground – contact work, lifting, utilising that massive body at the maul.” Geoff is spot on about the work Will does on the ground. But I would contest the view that he is not a lineout jumper. I think I have commented before on this one, so won’t go further than referring to the end of the last Cup Final in Dublin, LAR using Will on maybe 3 occasions at No 2 in the lineout. And I have seen him used by LAR in Top 14, and never seen him beaten to the catch…but in reality that would only be a total of 10 times max.
83 Go to commentsDaltons a great guy and can lead at any level with that humility
7 Go to commentsWell if Parling is an Australian citizen then I suppose that’s OK. It’s more than can be said for The Hobbit in Absentia. I’m guessing Jordan Useless won’t be getting a call up to the Wallabies then because the Melbourne Rebels lineout coached by Parling has been a complete disaster. Parling had better prove himself or it’s out. He’ll be flattered by having one of the best lineout operators in world rugby in Rodda hopefully. If Parling can teach the Wallabies one thing it would be to also teach Australian players to make a serious effort on charge downs. Only Frost and Rodda make an effort. The rest are half hearted and lazy, bar Harry Wilson’s effort last week. There are lots of big missed opportunities.
83 Go to comments