Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Northampton Saints academy poach two Gloucester Rugby products

JJ Tonks

Northampton Saints have poached two promising Gloucester Rugby products.

ADVERTISEMENT

JJ Tonks and Tommy Mathews have both joined Northampton Saints’ Senior Academy ahead of the 2019/20 season, the club have confirmed.

The pair both rose through the ranks at Gloucester Rugby but have now made the switch to Franklin’s Gardens and joined up with Chris Boyd’s squad as they began their preseason preparations earlier this month.

Tonks, 19, linked up with the Cherry & Whites at just 12 years old. The back-row forward has international recognition to his name after representing England 7s at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games – collecting a silver medal alongside future Saints teammate Ollie Sleightholme.

Video Spacer

Tonks also turned out for England Under-18s in 2018 before enjoying a stint in New Zealand training with the Otago Mitre 10 Cup team, playing for the region’s Under-18 and Under-19 sides in the process.

Meanwhile 18-year-old fly-half Mathews was first picked up by London Irish before moving to Hartpury College and catching the attention of Gloucester.

The talented goal-kicker featured in both the 2018 and 2019 Premiership Rugby Under-18s Academy League Finals, as well as pulling on a Wales Under-18s jersey for the Six Nations championship earlier this year.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Both of these young guys have arrived at the Club, got stuck in, and impressed us with their commitment so far in preseason training,” said Saints academy manager Mark Hopley.

“JJ and Tommy are both keen to learn and have some superb role models ahead of them in the pecking order at Franklin’s Gardens – to be able to pick the brains of the likes of Tom Wood and Dan Biggar in their positions is invaluable at their age.

“We showed last season that young players will get opportunities as the season wears on and so we don’t expect JJ and Tommy just to make up the numbers.

“We’re very proud of the quality of our Senior Academy players and we expect these two to contribute on the field too. They’ve both played international age-group rugby so the talent is certainly there and I’m excited to see what they can accomplish this season.”

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

A
AM 42 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

72 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING All Blacks prop punished for breaking team protocol All Blacks prop punished
Search