Uncapped 20-year-old gets Ashton's RWC backing despite England warning

Former England wing Chris Ashton has tipped 20-year-old Saracens wing Jack Bracken to make a late surge into the reckoning for Steve Borthwick’s World Cup squad this season.

The 2024 World Rugby Junior World Championship winner, and son of 2003 World Cup winner Kyran Bracken, is entering the new Gallagher PREM season off the back of a sensational pre-season, scoring a hat-trick in Saracens’ 96-42 PREM Rugby Cup win over Northampton Saints, and backing it up the following week with another hat-trick against Ampthill.

Of course, wing is no easy position to break into for English players currently. Perhaps after the back-row, it is the position in which Borthwick has the most options. As there is seldom wing cover on the bench, there are realistically only two wing spots in a matchday squad, so it is a devilish task to earn a place there, and perhaps even harder to keep that spot as Henry Arundell and Tom Roebuck have experienced over the past year.

While there is no exact science in how to formulate a World Cup squad, there are usually five spots for back-three players in a squad, meaning there will probably be space for three wings, a full-back and a player who can cover both.

Speaking ahead of the new season, Ashton said that it is a given that British & Irish Lion Tommy Freeman will go alongside Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, with fellow 20-year-old Saracen Noah Caluori another likely candidate should he have another good year. That will likely leave one place for a wing/full-back, a profile Bracken fits, and the 44-cap former England wing believes the Saracen could throw his hat into the ring this season.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Leicester

07:00

27 Sep 26

Saracens

All Stats and Data

“There’s a kid at Saracens who’s been in a bit and then out a bit, played some Champ,” TNT Sports pundit Ashton told RugbyPass. “But in pre-season he just looks like he really could have a strong start, and hopefully he’s on the wing for Saracens, that’s Jack Bracken. I hope we see a lot more of him.

“He’s been playing a bit of No.15, so maybe we see him there, but probably on the wing. But if Jack Bracken has a good year, you never know, he’s electric.”

The only thing inhibiting any aspiring internationals, Ashton believes, is the brand of rugby that has been on show in domestic rugby in recent years. The high-scoring matches last season, and indeed in Saracens’ 138-point PRC encounter with Northampton this month, are not making players battle-hardened for the rigours of Test rugby, where defence is much more keenly scrutinised.

That is a factor that is working against Bracken and any player hoping to prove themselves to Borthwick over the next year, Ashton said.

“The big problem comes when you’ve got international aspirations as a player,” he said. “When your team is rolling in 40, 50 points, it’s non-transferable; you can’t go from taking 40 points on a weekend to playing Test matches, where it’s going to be a tight game with a relatively small scoreline.

“I just think there’s got to be more desperation to defend and stop tries rather than ‘we score one, you score one’. That’s never the PREM that I’ve known. It was always hard to score a try, but we seem to have drifted heavily towards attacking rugby.”

Every match of the 2026/27 Gallagher PREM is live on TNT Sports and HBO Max, kicking off this Friday with Northampton Saints vs Newcastle Red Bulls from 7pm.