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Wasps promote Tana Umaga's England-eligible nephew and sign scrum half
Wasps have finalised their 48-man squad for the new Gallagher Premiership season with two new faces, however a prop they’d lined up has failed a medical.
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Fly-half Jacob Umaga, who is the nephew of former All Black Tana and son of ex-Samoa star Mike, has been promoted from the senior academy and will battle it out with Jimmy Gopperth and Lima Sopoaga for the 10 jersey.
He has represented England at U20 level.
The 20-year-old, who has scored four tries in his seven first-team appearances to date, was in impressive form last season for Wasps A in the Premiership Rugby Shield, racking up 82 points in his seven outings, which included three tries, 26 conversions and five penalties.
Umaga, who has also played at full-back, regularly featured for Yorkshire in their recent Championship campaign, following a spell with Auckland in New Zealand, where he was part of the side that won the Mitre 10 Cup in 2018.
Wasps Director of Rugby Dai Young said: “Jacob has picked up some valuable game-time and experience in the past 12 months both Down Under and also in the Championship and A League.
Umaga, is the eighth Academy product to be promoted to the first-team, following the likes of Tom Willis, Gabriel Oghre, Will Porter, Tim Cardall, Callum Sirker, Owain James and Sam Spink.
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“Having another Academy player graduate into the first-team is yet more evidence that our development pathway is coming to fruition and we’re excited to see how this next generation of players push on”, Young added.
The Coventry-based club Wasps have also signed young scrum-half Sam Wolstenholme from Yorkshire Carnegie.
The 20-year-old, who is studying Economics at Loughborough University, made 23 appearances for the Leeds-based outfit.
“Sam is a talented young scrum-half who will add some depth in the nine position, and hopefully training and playing alongside some international-class players next season will aid his development. We’re looking forward to seeing how he goes.”
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Wasps Academy Manager Jon Pendlebury added: “I’ve known and worked with Sam since he was just 15-years-old through the Academy at Carnegie.
“It has been pleasing to see Sam continue and progress into their first-team last year, playing as much as he did, which is credit to him and has now given Sam this opportunity with us at Wasps to develop further.
“Jacob enjoyed a busy 2018/19 and we’re really pleased he’s now got the opportunity to step up to the first-team where I have no doubt he’ll go on to showcase his talents on the bigger stage.”
Meanwhile Nottingham tighthead-prop Mike Daniels will no longer be joining the club ahead of the 2019/20 season after he failed a medical.
Wasps first-team squad 2019/20
Biyi Alo (tighthead-prop)
Josh Bassett (winger)
Kieran Brookes (tighthead-prop)
Tim Cardall (lock)
Nizaam Carr (back-row)
Tom Cruse (hooker)
Juan de Jongh (centre)
Malakai Fekitoa (centre)
Marcus Garratt (lock)
James Gaskell (lock)
Jimmy Gopperth (centre/fly-half)
Ben Harris (loosehead-prop)
Owain James (full-back)
Ashley Johnson (back-row/hooker)
Zach Kibirige (winger)
Joe Launchbury (lock)
Michael Le Bourgeois (centre)
Charlie Matthews (lock)
Simon McIntyre (loosehead-prop)
Rob Miller (full-back)
Matteo Minozzi (full-back)
Ben Morris (back-row)
Ross Neal (centre/winger)
Paolo Odogwu (winger)
Gabriel Oghre (hooker)
Jack Owlett (tighthead-prop)
Will Porter (scrum-half)
Alex Rieder (back-row)
Dan Robson (scrum-half)
Will Rowlands (lock)
Billy Searle (fly-half)
Brad Shields (back-row)
Callum Sirker (winger)
Lima Sopoaga (fly-half)
Sam Spink (centre)
Tommy Taylor (hooker)
Jeff Toomaga-Allen (tighthead-prop)
Jacob Umaga (fly-half)
Sione Vailanu (back-row)
Ben Vellacott (scrum-half)
Theo Vukasinovic (lock)
Marcus Watson (winger)
Tom West (loosehead-prop)
Jack Willis (back-row)
Tom Willis (back-row)
Sam Wolstenholme (scrum-half)
Thomas Young (back-row)
Zurabi Zhvania (loosehead-prop)
