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England pair crowned the two best global schoolboy rugby prospects in 2024

Junior Kpoku celebrates an England U20s try versus Ireland. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

England U20 pair Jack Bracken and Junior K’poku have been named the top two U18 prospects in the world in 2024 schoolboy rugby.

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The top 50 rankings published by NG rugby, feature 13 Australians, 12 New Zealanders, nine English, nine South Africans, three Frenchmen, two Japanese, and two Welshmen.

Bracken, the number two ranked prospect, is the son of former England scrumhalf Kyran who had 51 caps for his country and over 100 games for Saracens. The electric winger scored a hat-trick on debut for England U20 in this year’s tournament.

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The number one ranked player, lock Junior K’poku is Paris-based having joined Racing 92 and has already representing the club at top level, as well as Exeter Chiefs previously.

The exceptional talent weighs in at 117kgs and is just shy of 6ft 7. Speaking with RugbyPass earlier this year, K’poku explained two of his brothers play in France, one with Lyon and one with Bourgoin.

@rugbypass Junior Kpoku has been on 🔥 this #WorldRugbyU20s #rugby ? original sound – RugbyPass

Both 18-year-olds have just became World U20 Champions in South Africa as England U20 claimed the crown over France U20 in the final. Both could feature yet in the years to come at this level.

The third ranked prospect is Australian flyhalf Joey Walsh, who is a Waratahs age grade product from St Augustine’s school.

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Unfortunately for Rugby Australia, the ‘special’ talent has committed to the Manly Sea Eagles from 2025 and will follow the NRL pathway following school.

The top ranked South African player came in at number four, lock Alzeadon Felix of Grey College, while South African schoolboy midfielder and Grey College teammate Pieter Van der Merwe was named at number six.

The highest ranked New Zealand player is Hamilton Boys High School midfielder Hiraka Waitai-Hiranga, ranked eighth overall.

Waitai-Hiranga starred at the World Schools Festival in Thailand three seasons ago in 2022 when Hamilton Boys were crowned winners.

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The second five-eighth is also heading down the rugby league pathway with the New Zealand Warriors who have named him as a signing to their SG Ball U19 squad.

The next best New Zealander is also a No 12, Jarrel Tuiamalo-Vaega of Kelston Boys, who just missed the top 10 coming in at number 11.

The full list of the top 50 U18 prospects in the world is available here.

 

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Comments

15 Comments
A
AF 119 days ago

Hey Benny BS,

“lock Alzeadon Felix of Grey College”? Really?

He’s a flyhalf, you nutjob.

R
RW 119 days ago

Doesn’t matter what they change if they still employ Bin Smut.

B
Bull Shark 119 days ago

And I’m back to one comment in my history.

Damn.

B
Bull Shark 119 days ago

Oh no. I lost my Bull Shark avatar. With this new password thing.

I see the poor user experience has extended from the quality of journalism (eg this article) to the Rugbypass platform.

I should have read the terms and conditions. I’m probably not going to be allowed to call anyone a Kant anymore.

D
DH 120 days ago

Oh Ben, you only had one job to do here. It was to accurately report on someone else's news and you couldn't even do that properly.

L
Lewis 120 days ago

Hello Guys, great article

E
Edward 120 days ago

Ben Smith, hack of a journalist again.

Alzeadon Felix is a flyhalf.

Photo of Sodeke

R
Robbie 120 days ago

England desperately need to ensure that all the U20 Championship team have a real pathway into the English profession game.

B
Blair 120 days ago

For those people questioning why NZ/Australia are pushing so hard to speed the game up and change the rules to improve the spectacle it’s for this exact reason.
Rugby league is winning in the battle of sports down under, and sadly top talent from both countries is now more likely to funnel into the NRL than rugby union.
Short term I’m sure other countries will rejoice in a new global order but long term this is terrible for the game of union that we all love

D
Dan 120 days ago

Scotland are already eyeing up the top ranked South Africans.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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