Northern Edition

Select Edition

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

Six T2 rugby players to watch this November Test window

Baltazar Amaya #10 of Team Uruguay gestures during the Men's Rugby Sevens Pool C Group match between France and Uruguay on Day -2 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on July 24, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

It’s that time of the year again when the leaves turn brown, the days are shorter, and the rugby ball is thrown around between nations. As in every year, November is an intense month for all, especially for the Tier 2 nations, who hope to steal a bit of attention from the eyes of the rugby fan.

ADVERTISEMENT

With that in mind, let us suggest six T2 internationals that you should focus your gaze on!

Simão Bento
Portugal – Outside back –  23 years old
The Lobos are heavily packed in the backs department with the likes of Raffaele Storti, Rodrigo Marta, Manuel C. Pinto, Nuno Sousa Guedes, Tomás Appleton, Hugo Aubry, among others. But with Marta, Guedes and Pinto out of action, it rests on Storti and Bento’s shoulders to set the world alight.

Bento, who put up a sensational show against the Springboks back in July, will oversee the fullback duties, guiding the Portuguese team’s counter-offensive strategy and putting them over the line. In his last five outings for Portugal, Simão Bento averaged two line-breaks per game, constantly causing trouble for the opposition.

Video Spacer

The 20-min red card explained by referee Karl Dickson

Referee Karl Dickson explains the 20-min red card system that is in place during the Autumn Nations Series.

Video Spacer

The 20-min red card explained by referee Karl Dickson

Referee Karl Dickson explains the 20-min red card system that is in place during the Autumn Nations Series.

The Stade Montois outside back will be a threat on the loose, deserving your full attention this November.

Kitione Salawa
Fiji – Loose Forward – 23 years old
Remember the name: Kitione Salawa. For those who have been following Fiji in 2024, Salawa isn’t a stranger as the openside flanker made quite an impact in the Pacific Nations Cup, scoring three tries, making thirty-five tackles and three turnovers, in what was a standout couple of performances.

Kitione Salawa
Fiji’s Kitione Salawa (C) avoids a tackle from Samoa’s Melani Matavao during the World Rugby Pacific Challenge 2024 match between Fiji and Samoa at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva on August 23, 2024. (Photo by LEON LORD / AFP) (Photo by LEON LORD/AFP via Getty Images)

With Levani Botia approaching the end of his stellar Test match career, Kitione Salawa has all the qualities to be the next in line and deserves the chance to ascend as a powerhouse in the international scene.

ADVERTISEMENT

For those who are still sceptical about Salawa, you have in him another excuse to miss brunch and watch Fiji play this Autumn.

Joel Merkler
Spain – tighthead prop – 23 years old
Two years after his last game for Spain, Joel Merkler is back to play for his country and is better than ever, as the prop has become a valuable player on the blockbuster Stade Toulousain’s side. Merkler is a force of nature, a formidable scrummager who relishes the set-piece contest and is a unique enforcer.

T2 players
Leinster Rugby’s Robbie Henshaw (left) and Caelan Doris (right) tackle Stade Toulousain’s Joel Merkler (centre) during the Investec Champions Cup Final match between Leinster Rugby and Stade Toulousain at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 25, 2024 in London, England.(Photo by Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Merkler battled his way to the top and he is currently one of the best Tier 2 props in the World – this November is the perfect time to start his dominance on a global scale.

ADVERTISEMENT

So, if you are a lover of big props and hard-as-nails scrummagers, Joel Merkler is the one for you.

Baltazar Amaya
Uruguay – utility back – 25 years old
Los Teros head for Europe missing some of their top stars, but there won’t be a shortage of magic as the likes of Baltazar Amaya will be on the team sheet.

T2 rugby players
Uruguay’s full-back Baltazar Amaya celebrates after scoring a try during the France 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool A match between Uruguay and Namibia at OL Stadium in Lyon, south-eastern France, on September 27, 2023. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP) (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images)

Amaya, who dotted down three tries in the 2023 Men’s Rugby World Cup, is a spectacular ball carrier who can cast a spell and lull incoming tacklers into a false sense of security before breaking their tackle and pushing his team closer to the try line.

With six tries and eleven caps, Amaya offers a range of options to Uruguay that few can and is a certified Test match superstar in the making.

Tornike Jalagonia
Georgia –  No.8 – 25 years-old
You were expecting Davit Niniashvili, weren’t you? Sorry but this shortlist had to wrap up with a number-eight and there’s no one in better form than the Lelo Tornike Jalagonia. With Beka Gorgadze recovering from a minor injury, Jalagonia will take this as an opportunity to show he can be a shining light at the back of the scrum.

Tornike Jalagonia T2 players
Tornike Jalagonia of Georgia looks dejected after defeat during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Fiji and Georgia at Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux on September 30, 2023 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Jalagonia’s season for Provence started spectacularly, ranking as the second-best tackler of the Pro D2 (100 tackle attempts and a 98 per cent completion rate).

His daunting physicality combined with a resilient mindset makes him one of the toughest enforcers from the Tier 2 universe, and that’s the best calling card to give 80 minutes of your time to watch him rock for the Lelos.

Related

Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

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

J
JW 1 hour 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.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ 'England's blanket of despair feels overdone - they are not a team in freefall' 'England's blanket of despair feels overdone - they are not a team in freefall'
Search