England's 2008 U20 finalists - Where are they now?
Ten years on from the inaugural Junior World Championship and the advent of the U20 classification in rugby, many of England’s class of 2008 should be in the primes of their careers.
England impressed throughout the tournament, beating Australia, Canada and Fiji in the group stage and South Africa in the semi-final, but New Zealand in the final was a bridge too far for them, where they fell to a comprehensive 38-3 defeat.
That Baby Blacks side included talents such as Ryan Crotty, Sam Whitelock and Aaron Smith, but who made up their English counterparts that day and where are they now?
We took a look.
- Noah Cato
Cato was highly thought of coming out of the Saracens academy and had already played multiple times for the senior side in the Premiership before heading off to the JWC with England. He enjoyed a fair amount of success at Saracens and represented England at the Saxons level, but fruitless spells with Northampton Saints and Newcastle Falcons followed his departure from north London in 2011. He currently turns out for Wimbledon RFC in National League 2 South.
- Mark Odejobi
Odejobi was unfortunately never able to make the breakthrough at London Wasps that Cato did at Saracens. He left the club in 2011 and went on to play for both Esher and the England 7s team, before deciding to retire in 2014 at the age of 26. He currently works in the finance sector, after having earned a 1st class honours degree in Mathematics with Computer Science from Brunel University.
- Luke Eves
The son of former Bristol captain Derek Eves, Luke amassed over 100 appearances for Bristol in two spells at the club. He also went on to spend two seasons with the Newcastle Falcons and currently represents Hartpury College in the Greene King IPA Championship.
- Jordan Turner-Hall
Turner-Hall’s career was unfortunately cut short in 2015 when injuries forced him into retirement at the age of 27. He spent his entire career with Harlequins, having made his debut for the senior side as a 17-year-old in the season Quins were relegated, and went on to become one of the club’s most potent attacking weapons during their period atop the Premiership. He also won two England caps back in 2012.
- Miles Benjamin
Benjamin, too, was forced to retire from rugby at the age of 27, after spells with both Worcester Warriors and Leicester Tigers. He was a prolific try scorer for Worcester but unfortunately injuries had begun to take their toll by the time he arrived at Leicester and the number of appearances he made at Welford Road was limited as a result. Like Cato, Benjamin also progressed on to the England Saxons side, representing them multiple times between 2010 and 2016.
- Alex Goode
Unarguably the biggest success story of this back-line, Goode has gone on to feature for England 21 times, as well as making over 200 appearances for Saracens and picking up multiple domestic and European titles on the way. He remains a key component in Saracens’ first XV and is regularly championed as a player that Eddie Jones should include in his England squads.
- Joe Simpson
A bright career at Wasps has been semi-derailed by the emergence of Dan Robson, but Simpson is still a valuable contributor at the highest club level. Although rumours persist that he is leaving the club this summer, he has spent his entire career at Wasps, making over 220 appearances in the process and helping them through one of the darkest periods in their history. He also has an England cap to his name, with his sole appearance to date coming as a replacement against Georgia in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
- Nathan Catt
Another player who has faced a career beset by injuries but one who is still chugging along in the Premiership for Bath. Those injuries have limited Catt to just over 100 appearances for the club and denied him a shot at an England cap, but when fit, there are few more effective than him in the Premiership. Catt joins Cato and Benjamin in the England Saxons club, though, having featured for them in 2009 against Portugal.
- Joe Gray
After coming through their academy, opportunities were sparse for Gray at Northampton Saints with Dylan Hartley around, so the promising hooker made the move to Harlequins and has forged an impressive club career. Since heading to west London in 2010, Gray has made just shy of 150 appearances for the club and was an important part of their title-winning squad.
- Alex Corbisiero
Perhaps the unluckiest member of this squad, Cobisiero is another forced out of the game due to injuries, but not before earning representation at every possible level. Domestically, he impressed for both London Irish and Northampton Saints, he played extensively for the England U20s and Saxons sides, won 31 caps with England seniors and reached the pinnacle of northern hemisphere rugby, representing the British and Irish Lions out in Australia in 2013. Corbisiero hung up his boots in 2016 and is currently working in the US as part of the NBC Sports’ coverage of the Premiership.
- Ben Thomas
Thomas was the original lock tipped for stardom out of the Saracens academy, before the likes of Maro itoje, George Kruis and Nick Isiekwe made it the en vogue thing. Unfortunately for Thomas, his career didn’t take the same trajectory as those of his successors. Thomas spent some time with London Welsh, London Scottish and Barking earlier in his career, before spells at Rotherham Titans and Coventry RFC in more recent seasons.
- Gregor Gillanders
Gillanders couldn’t quite make the breakthrough into the Leicester Tigers senior squad but enjoyed a productive career with both Bedford Blues and London Scottish. He is currently a Graduate Engineer with the Waterman Group, although he still features for London Scottish in the Championship.
- Jon Fisher
Fisher’s career has seen him have two stints at London Irish, as well as representing Bedford Blues, Northampton Saints and Bristol. Like several others in this XV, he also represented the Saxons, featuring in the 2009 fixture against Portugal. He left Bristol last year to pursue his coaching career and he is currently working in the London Irish academy, the same academy that he graduated from 11 years ago.
- Calum Clark
Clark’s career has been a rollercoaster ride to date, having faced the lows of serial injuries and several suspensions, but despite that he has forged a successful Premiership career. He featured 70 times for Yorkshire Carnegie, before embarking on a seven-year stint at Northampton, making nearly 150 appearances and forming a key part of their 2013-14 title-winning side. Adding to the solitary England cap he won in 2015 may now seem a long shot, but having moved to Saracens last summer, it would take a brave man to bet against Clark adding more silverware to his trophy cabinet.
- Hugo Ellis
Ellis captained the U20 side in 2008 and was seen by many at London Wasps as the next big thing in their vaunted back-row. It never quite worked out for Ellis at the highest level, despite a smattering of appearances for both Wasps and Newport Gwent Dragons, but he has been a key part of the Rosslyn Park squad in National League 1 since 2012.
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments