'He's a kid out of school and it can be daunting Naiyaravoro sprinting flat out at you'
Wasps boss Lee Blackett may be frustrated by his team’s general inability to convert pressure into points in the Gallagher Premiership, but he is liking what he has recently seen from 19-year-old Charlie Atkinson who will be promoted to a senior team contract for next season after making his first-team breakthrough via the academy.
Atkinson hit the headlines last September when his second appearance off of the Premiership bench lasted just minutes as he was mowed down by a red-carded high shot at Saracens from England skipper Owen Farrell.
He has since bounced back to make a dozen Premiership appearances in this 2020/21 season featuring a half-dozen starts. The first four starts during the winter months were initially at out-half but Atkinson has since popped up at full-back, wearing the No15 jersey in the last two Wasps league outings against Worcester and Northampton.
His stats on the Premiership Rugby website from those last two games highlight how busy Atkinson has been, making 143 metres from 23 carries that featured five clean breaks and left five defenders beaten. They were also two tackles and on the negative side of the ledger, there were three tackles missed and three turnovers conceded.
Blackett openly admitted when quizzed by RugbyPass that he still very much viewed Atkinson as an out-half but the importance in recent games was more to get his youngster on the pitch in whatever position possible to help further accelerate his development.
The teenager made headlines last September when Owen Farrell collided with him with a high shot https://t.co/L7rJouRTth
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 25, 2021
“What you will find with a lot of 10s now is they will spend a lot of time in the backfield,” explained Blackett when asked for his assessment on how Atkinson has fared as the starting Wasps full-back. “10 and 15 are our two full-backs at times so it is not as big a change as people make out for a 10 to go and stand at full-back because defensively that is where he normally is.
“What I have seen is it gives us a big right foot, left foot combination with him and Jacob (Umaga) and the reason we have probably not played him at 10 is the form of Jacob recently, he has been going really well and we are trying to bed Charlie in.
“There has been bravery, putting his body on the line. He had to make a few last-ditch tackles at the weekend on players like (Taqele) Naiyaravoro. He is a kid just out of school and it can be daunting with a figure like Naiyaravoro sprinting on the wing flat out at you at full-back and he is putting his body on the line.
“There is plenty of little parts of his game in terms of the game management he has done well, but I still think there are little parts of his game that are going to come on. His positioning, he is definitely a 10. He is a 10 that can play 15 rather than a 15 that can play at 10 but for us it is about trying to give him game time and trying to get him out there, making him better for this experience and speeding up his development.”
Atkinson’s height and weight aren’t officially known. His profile in the Wasps match programme from the last home game versus Worcester was blank while his profile on the club website is currently absent, but Blackett is happy with the level of robustness that the player who turns 20 in October is demonstrating.
“He is a good size, Charlie, works hard in the gym. For a 19-year-old kid, our academy has done a great job on him. He has had a specialist S&C coach going into school every week with him, he has had one-to-one Wasps coaches, S&C coaches going in and looking after him.
“Our younger guys that we are thinking ‘he’s a definite 100 per cent Premiership player’, we send specialist coaches in so every week at school he would have had an S&C coach going into him, a rugby coach going in and seeing him working on his skill set just to get him to this place.
“Fair play to those staff, they have accelerated his development and it’s very rare that you get a kid come through this quickly that spends most of his time on the field. You’ll find that guys that come in this quickly sometimes pick up knocks and Charlie is pretty resilient in that way, but he has had a lot of attention put on him for quite a while.”
"I've had conversations with the referee a couple of times. I spoke to Spreaders as well… I was really frustrated after the game"
– Lee Blackett has revisited post-game comments and also addressed the Gloucester-Bath cancellation that has hurt Wasps https://t.co/gwuXC3T02x
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 1, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Bell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
13 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
13 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
13 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
13 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
13 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
13 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
13 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
13 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
13 Go to comments