Under-23 squads: Super Rugby vs Premiership vs PRO14 vs Top 14
Following on from the RugbyPass look at the club-by-club strength of the under-23s in the Gallagher Premiership, Guinness PRO14 and Super Rugby, we finish up the series by comparing the strengths of the three competitions as a whole, as well as the Top 14.
Super Rugby, with its heavy focus on the development of homegrown players rather than recruitment, understandably comes out well, as does the PRO14 where the pick of talent from four of the five participating nations ply their trade.
Both the Premiership and Top 14 squads also look packed with talent, despite the heavy recruitment of senior players from abroad that goes on in both competitions.
Take a look at the RugbyPass XVs below and see which one stands out for you…
SUPER RUGBY
Jordie Barrett; Sevu Reece, Braydon Ennor, Damian Willemse, Rieko Ioane; Curwin Bosch, Embrose Papier; Mayco Vivas, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Taniela Tupou, Jason Jenkins, Marcos Kremer, Luke Jacobson, Dalton Papali’i, Jean-Luc du Preez.
The latest instalment in the intriguing RugbyPass series assessing the strength of the young players at clubs around the world https://t.co/eEO6Yn6Dbu
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 3, 2019
The back line leans heavily on the resources of the New Zealand franchises, with the likes of Will Jordan, Bautista Delguy, Jack Maddocks and Sbu Nkosi just missing out. Josh Ioane was another option at fly-half, while Blues centres TJ Faiane and Taniela Tele’a would have been in the mix were it not for talents of Ennor and Willemse.
Tongan Thor keeps out Tyrell Lomax at tighthead, whilst second rows Isaia Walker-Leawere and Izack Rodda were both close in an engine room that could have seen any combination of the four feature.
The back row, however, was where the real strength of the competition showed through, with Du’Plessis Kirifi, Marco van Staden, Jaco Coetzee, Liam Wright and Dan du Preez just some of the players worthy of mention that couldn’t crack the starting three.
GALLAGHER PREMIERSHIP
Max Malins; Joe Cokanasiga, Joe Marchant, Ollie Lawrence, Ollie Thorley; Marcus Smith, Jack Maunder; Rhys Carre, Jack Walker, Ehren Painter, Nick Isiekwe, Joel Kpoku, Sam Underhill, Tom Curry, Zach Mercer.
An understandably English-oriented XV, Italian internationals Jake Polledri and Matteo Minozzi were not far off while England cap Ted Hill was similarly close. Hill, like Ben Earl, Ben Curry, Jack Willis, Alex Dombrandt, James Chisholm and Lewis Ludlam, just missed out due to the strength of young back rowers in the Premiership at the current time.
Exeter’s Joe Simmonds, Northampton’s Rory Hutchinson and James Grayson, Bristol’s Piers O’Conor and Sale’s Cam Redpath show the quality of playmakers in the competition despite not making the XV.
Wings are also in abundance with Gabriel Ibitoye, Ben Loader and Jordan Olowofela in the mix. Being drawn largely from one nation, rather than four or five, the Premiership understandably can’t offer up the same number of internationals as the Super Rugby or PRO14 sides.
So which Premiership clubs have the most heavily stacked division of young players?
– @alexshawsport unpacks each team ??? #PremRugby ? https://t.co/yhVrsodw1q
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 30, 2019
GUINNESS PRO14
Blair Kinghorn; Jordan Larmour, Sam Arnold, Marco Zanon, Jacob Stockdale; Adam Hastings, Craig Casey; Ox Nche, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Marco Riccioni, Scott Cummings, James Ryan, Jamie Ritchie, Aaron Wainwright, Max Deegan.
One of the most striking things about the PRO14 is the number of talented young tightheads floating about, with Riccioni keeping out Zander Fagerson, Leon Brown, Andrew Porter and Tom O’Toole, with four of those five senior internationals.
The back row depth is also strong, with Magnus Bradbury, Junior Pokomela, Giovanni Licata and Taine Basham on the cusp.
Scrum-half aside, it’s an all-international back line, with further capped options like Joey Carbery, Owen Watkin, Luca Sperandio and Tyler Morgan also in the conversation.
If there is one drawback in comparison to the other XVs on show, it is arguably a lack of fly-half depth below Hastings and Carbery, with Benetton No10 Antonio Rizzi the next man up. It’s not quite the quantity of proven operators that there are in the other three competitions.
Under 23s squad depth
– @alexshawsport unpacks each #PRO14 side and rates them by their U23s players ??? https://t.co/9xeIsqutAy
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 1, 2019
TOP 14
Thomas Ramos; Gervais Cordin, Damian Penaud, Romain Ntamack, Gabriel N’Gandebe; Anthony Belleau, Antoine Dupont; Guram Gogichashvili, Pierre Bourgarit, Demba Bamba, Florian Verhaeghe, Florent Vanverberghe, Judicaël Cancoriet, Cameron Woki, Jordan Joseph.
Leaning heavily on the two recent World Rugby Under-20 Championship-winning sides, there is clearly no lack of talent waiting in the wings for Les Bleus.
The likes of Bourgarit and Bamba up front have been capped. The same is true of Gogichashvili for Georgia, with Teddy Baubigny in the mix as well as Selevasio Tolofua and Anthony Jelonch behind a very talented starting back row.
Without doubt, though, the strength of the competition is in the half-backs, where Dupont and Belleau hold off the challenges of a cohort of players.
Baptiste Couilloud, Arthur Retiere and Arthur Coville are all bona fide options at scrum-half, while Mathieu Jalibert, Louis Carbonel and Thomas Darmon offer a similar level of depth at fly-half.
WATCH: Part one of The Academy, the six-part RugbyPassdocumentary series on how Leicester Tigers develop their young players
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell 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.
14 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?
9 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.
9 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.
28 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 🤐
24 Go to comments