Mole said:
Quick one for those who watch schoolboy rugby.
Can you list 6-12 players that will play super 14 in 2010-11 that are yet too. can be any age. just players that we can look out for. As you can see many people have mentioned established older guys, Am sure there will be a large proportion of younger guys that will rise to the top in the next 18months.
Many of us have mentioned seasoned players for Melbourne, in the main, because we know that when you are playing big blokes on the veldt that you need a bit of proven grunt in senior rugby in a player before you can recommend him for professional rugby. Playing in Kiwiland is no bowl of cherries either.
As for younger blokes: most of the 2007 crop have already played a bit of senior rugby and been seen in the IRB U/20 competition. Most of the good ones have already been mentioned.
2009 was a vintage crop of schoolboys likely to become Super players though unfortunately not all positions had quality. Some of them have been snapped up by S14 squads already but I will mention them anyway as they could be 1 year Academy signings and be available elsewhere in 2011.
I have mentioned some of these players before but I have never been shy of repeating myself.
3. Paul Alo-Emile is the best scrummaging Oz Schools prop I ever saw. He is already 120kg but not grossly so as Rodzilla was at the same age. Loves hitting a ruck too. Oz Schools took 2 Kiwi Schools scrums against the head and whilst they are often kicks through I imagine that the strong back and tree trunk legs of PAE had a lot to do with them.
He's a bit young to be thinking about playing in his position in 2011 but if 19 y.o. Daniel Palmer could play for the Tahs in the S14 at Carisbrook in 2008, PAE could do something similar in 2011. And ethnic Islander lads tend to mature physically a lot sooner, don't they?
4/5/6/8 Luke Jones has already been contracted by the Force. He's supposed to be 201cms tall, has a high work rate and gets around the park like Rocky Elsom, though, come to think about it, the better comparison is with Hugh McMeniman. Let's hope that he has a better injury record than 3M. He is definitely a bench prospect for 2011 and who knows for 2010? If skinny Sam Wykes can start in a S14 game for the Force so could Luke, and Luke is harder than Sam on his best day.
15. Jacob Woodhouse was the 2009 NSW Schools Player Of The Year and is a Matt Burke type fullback: always safe, especially under the high ball, can boot the ball a long way yet is fast and good in broken play by himself and chiming in with others. He is with the Tahs Academy in 2010 and is rumoured to have a 3yr deal which I can't confirm.
They are my bankers but some others are:
7. Liam Gill is not mentioned above only because he is just 86kgs now and has a slim build, but he is as brave as Waugh and Pocock at the same age and probably a better linker than those two. A definite if he can beef up.
7. Michael Hooper is the NSW version of Gill. He was the best player of the 2008 Oz Schools tournament IMO and I was looking forward to his contests with Gill in 2009 with some interest, but it didn't eventuate as he had to have an operation. He's not listed above only because of doubt about being injury prone.
4/5. Greg Peterson is 206cms (yep 206) and 115kgs. He's a Dan Vickerman type player and the only reason he is not mentioned above is that I am a bit shy of mentioning tall timber from schools rugby until they have proven that they have the grunt to play a power game with their elders. I have been disappointed about promising schools 2nd rowers, like Phil Mathers and Rob Simmons (to date) in the past. Is in the Tahs
professional Academy though.
11. Kimami Sitauti I have described before as a Tuqiri type with a better step and greedier than Lote. He had a marvellous Schools tournament but is not mentioned above because apparently he had a crook game against Kiwi Schools at Ballymore. He's in the Queensland Academy for 2010 though and because his family came over from NZ just earlier this year, let's all hope that he is making the Kiwi commentators moan in a year or two.
9. Nick Stirzacker is a brave rooster and has a lovely flat pass like Peter Stringer. He can box kick and snipe too. But geez, he is small, even for a scrummie.
6/8. Jarrad Butler played for the Oz Schools 1st XV last year with another year to go at school. He's similar to Jones, and like Hooper had an operation and missed all schools rep footie in 2009.
There are a few other possibilities.
1/8 Scott Sio was a backrower at his junior Wests club and they were short a prop so he filled in so well he made NSW Schools as LHP. He can run like the wind, use the ball and loves a tackle. He's already 114kgs and I see his senior future as an 8 but would like to see him cross-trained as a hooker. I fear the league guys will be all over him to play in the front row.
15. Mitchell Felsman did not set the world on fire in the national tournament but he did for Oz A Schools against Tonga Schools where he looked like Chis Latham. Based on that this kid could be anything in Super rugby, even in 2011. But I haven't seen many games from him like that; so fingers crossed.
10. Kyle Godwin is in the Force Academy for 2010. He was the best 2009 flyhalf in the tournament this year IMO and is a Noddy type, but doesn't hesitate to take it to the line either.
15. Simon Morahan didn't play his best rugby in the national tournament this year. But that is neither here nor there as he showed enough glimpses, especially on the last day, to indicate his class, which is why he is in the Reds Academy.
We can't mention
14 Chris Feauai for 2011 as he is just 15 but if he's in the Oz Schools 1st XV at that age you can imagine what he will be like when he is 20. Knows how to finish a try off. Another is lock
Curtis Browning, 16, who is back at school next year and will probably play 8 as a senior.
3 Oliver Hoskings is a certainty for the Force beyond 2011; they'll have to wait because he was playing in the U/16 tournament for WA 2 weeks ago, as well as playing in the Opens earlier in the year.
The 2008 vintage of schools players was not great and didn't compare with the 2009 crop. And don't bother telling me that the 2008 mob beat NZ Schools and the 2009 lot didn't because it doesn't signify for too many reasons to mention. And anyway if you saw the DVD of the 2008 game played in NZ you would realise that Oz Schools were beaten everywhere but on the scoreboard.
I would mention Nicky Price from 2008 but Aussie Rules have got him. Dom Shipperly was the second best winger and he seems to be going well up north. Lock Nick Buchanan, son of the cricket coach, looked like a prospect but there was talk of his playing cricket, not rugby, as he is a fair bowler apparently.
Justin Turner from Perth already has a Force deal and Qlders are talking of loosie Quirk. He got a red card in the 2008 tournament and the first thing he did in the next game was to give a head high tackle. Loosie is probably the right description.
Midfielders Cameron Mitchell and Tim Bennetts were both in the amateur Tahs Academy this year IIRR and have played 1st Grade for Eastwood already. Bennetts has played the whole season in the Ones whereas Mitchell was injured for most of the year. The are on track and could be Melbourne candidates if they think in 12 months time that they won't crack the Tahs squad.
No, not the same quality as the 2009 tranche.
