Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Five young stars to look out for in the future of world rugby

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Five young stars to look out for in the future of world rugby

Last month Argentina hosted the Junior World Championships, a fascinating tournament that was eventually won by favourites New Zealand. While some sides didn’t fair as well as they’d hoped, a few stars caught the eye. Total Rugby has profiled five of them.

Starting with the host side, young flyhalf Ignacio Rodriguez Muedra may not have a name that rolls easily off the tongue, but in time you’ll find Muedra will more than likely become a prominent figure for Argentina with his flair eye for the gap.

Liam Gill makes the list for Australia. The 18 year old has already gained valuable experience on the IRB Sevens circuit, and with his impressive form in the JWC, has earned himself a Queensland Reds contract for next years Super 15.

South African Patrick Lambie is perhaps the player with the most experience on this list, having played a full season of rugby for the Sharks in the Super 14. Lambie possesses incredible confidence under the high ball, and has great composure both on attack and in defence.

Rhys Ruddock’s rugby story is an interesting one. The son of former Welsh coach Mike Ruddock, Rhys now finds himself playing for Ireland after having been born in Dublin to an Irish mother. Powerfully built and mobile, Ruddock has already made his senior debut for Ireland.

The one player that perhaps got people talking more than any other though was young New Zealand wing Julian Savea, who was named player of the tournament and was awarded the prestigious IRB Junior Player of the Year for 2010 award.

His pace and strength have naturally drawn comparisons to other great All Black wings from the past, and coupled with his Sevens experience, he has an incredible finishing ability that had him equalling the try scoring record for the tournament.

What do you think of the five players named, and will they go on to become Test greats?

Time: 02:39
Note: Thanks to Total Rugby for the clip

Julian Savea of course . But He need to learn to work as a team guy .

-B

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 3:49 pm
Loving the look of Liam Gill. Looks real tough. Watch out for him and Savea next year methinks. Such talent in the game today!

P.S. First?!

By Alexander, at July 15, 2010 3:49 pm
Taylor Paris from Canada already playing provincial 1sts rugby at 17 and has played for our national 7s side at a few events

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 4:02 pm
Andrew Conway the Irish full back looked very good too

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 4:04 pm
jamie hagan, under 20's six nations grandslam winner. came up in the leinster academy with cian healy and johnathan sexton. signed with Connaught and starts tight head prop for them. one for irelands future

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Not to forget Remi Lamerat, tyhe young french centre. He looked fantastic in the last u20 WC and 6N. Awesome physique and great speed aswell

By Oli, at July 15, 2010 4:43 pm
Lambie is such a talent,Id back him to play fullback for the Boks this weekend,but PDV is in love with Zane Kirchner!

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 4:50 pm
no english players to look out for

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 4:58 pm
Tyler Bleyendaal anyone? How did he not make this short list?

By Unknown, at July 15, 2010 5:28 pm
what about ben youngs for england?

By Rob, at July 15, 2010 5:37 pm
@Dixon, I was wondering the same, but I suppose they wanted to not do more than one player from any particular country.

Ruddock looks huge for a youngster btw. Really impressive to see him up against the NZ Maori side

By Greiffel, at July 15, 2010 5:44 pm
... yes, ben youngs would've been top of this list but was a bit busy helping the senior side gain a famous win in australia ...

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 7:39 pm
Played with Julian in 2007. Could see he was going places even then.

By Matt, at July 15, 2010 8:00 pm
Tyler Bleyendaal anyone? How did he not make this short list?

sssssssshhhhh keep that one quiet.....

By Unknown, at July 15, 2010 8:19 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.

By Unknown, at July 15, 2010 8:19 pm
No great English prospects? Rory Clegg and Freddie Burns have already shown their talent in the premiership, whilst full England internationals were away, and James Gaskell and Joe Marler are awesome forwards, huge for their age but amazingly mobile

http://rugbydump.blogspot.com/2010/02/joe-marler-great-prop-try-for-england.html

By RedYeti, at July 15, 2010 8:55 pm
Agree with RedYeti how can you not include any English players? Joe Marler is every inch the modern prop, Freddie Burns is class and has shown it frequently for Gloucester as well as more then a few times for the U20s... come on RugbyDump how can you seriously not include any of the bright stars of the English game? You include Ireland and we beat them.

By Anonymous, at July 15, 2010 10:25 pm
You really should read before you comment. Even then, does the big TOTAL RUGBY animation at the beginning and end not give you a clue..?

Even if this was made by RD, it's mainly based on performances from the JWC (if you'd read you'd know that).

By Shaft, at July 15, 2010 10:40 pm
Ignore my comment above, I hadn't read the story properly and I thought it was just a feature on young players...

By Rob, at July 16, 2010 1:05 am
The thing about the England youngsters is at this age they usually dwarf all their opponents with perhaps the exception of SA. They simply overpower teams, unfortunately when they reach senior level the other teams are the same size as them and they don't know how to cope.

This is why you see English youngsters in the finals nearly every year but that success hasn't transferred to the senior side.

That's not to say that England have no decent young players, Clegg looks a real prospect.

By Anonymous, at July 16, 2010 5:30 am
I think christian wade (england winger) will certainly be the star of the future.His already showed some spark in 2009-10 irb sevens series.

By Bakkies Botha 4 President !, at July 16, 2010 7:20 am
Uh, England are always in the finals, but very rarely win it.
They are no bigger than the Saffers, Aussies or Kiwis for the most part, and their success probably reflects more their large playing numbers and the massive investment they make in youth development (more than most countries, probably more than any country).

By Tommy, at July 16, 2010 8:29 am
Agree with Dixon - Bleyendaal tore the Aussies to shreds.

By DannyDC, at July 16, 2010 9:47 am
"come on RugbyDump how can you seriously not include any of the bright stars of the English game? You include Ireland and we beat them."

Open your eyes dumbo, it's an official vid from the IRB. :)

By Anonymous, at July 16, 2010 10:19 am
"Uh, England are always in the finals, but very rarely win it.
They are no bigger than the Saffers, Aussies or Kiwis"

I'm afraid I have to agree with what the other post said, I'm English, and have noticed that our lads are nearly always bigger and heavier than the other team including the backs. I think its mainly down to the large playing pool, naturally the big lads in schools rugby always finds it easier to run through defenses, and there are far more bigger lads to choose from in England.

By Anonymous, at July 16, 2010 2:22 pm
Sounds like Pommy excuses creeping into discussion again, tisk tisk tisk you guys. By your logic, a country with a larger playing base ie your beloved England team (over 2,100,000 registered players) should easily account for a nation with a smaller playing base oh lets say the Kiwis (a little under 150,000 registered players) but as we all know that just aint the case.

By NRD, at July 16, 2010 4:30 pm
Except you conveniently ignore the fact that rugby union is a third rate sport in England (well it's possibly bigger than cricket, but both are dwarfed by football). In NZ all the kids want to be All Blacks when they grow up; in England they want to be illiterate, adulterous millionaires for some reason :(

The big rugby nations are always going to do disproportionately better in youth competitions because they have the money and talent and developmental structure to develop their youngsters. That said, NZ do seem ludicrously good at U20 level; even more dominant than their test side has been. Not sure why this is :S

By RedYeti, at July 16, 2010 7:00 pm
Rodríguez Muedra? Missed a lot of kicks and tackles. Certainly not better than Tyler Bleyendaal.

By Joost, at July 17, 2010 12:41 am
Thing is though, England and France have larger playing populations and invest more funds than anyone in youth development, but New Zealand, South Africa and Australia still do at least as well and usually better in terms of developing young players.
There is actually more to it than money and numbers.
It comes down to the way players are coached tactically and technically.

By Tommy, at July 19, 2010 3:19 am
work a way to score the last try

By rosh, at July 19, 2010 11:53 am
hell you might aswell put the whole new zealand under 20s squad in this, they were un believable in the junior world cup. blyendaal looks like a real prospect to take over carter when he retires or heads overseas.

By Anonymous, at July 20, 2010 8:14 am