The sight of Mike Brown’s bald bonce still bouncing around the Premiership shows it is not an ageist institution but its youth wing is on the march.
The impression the new kids on the block have made already this season across the league has been eye-catching.
After the destructive fires that have swept through the league of late comes a rebirth. New growth is emerging. You don’t want the country’s elite league to look like a development competition but at the same time it is refreshing to see young talent breaking through.
All power to the clubs that give them a go.
No-one should expect the finished article at this stage – they will make mistakes as they adapt to the weekly rigours of Premiership – but they are a heartening addition.
Of most interest to Steve Borthwick will have been the sight of three young English tight-heads pawing the Premiership turf.
Sale’s Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Gloucester’s Afo Fasogbon, both 20, have made league starts while Billy Sela, 19, came on for his Bath debut last weekend off the bench. In a void position for the national side it is reassuring there is a coming generation – and that it is being given a chance.
Genge, for all the warmth of his post-match cuddle for the London Irish academy product, will have noted the date of the return fixture and be feasting on raw meat ahead of it.
Fasogbon was England’s starting tight-head when they won the World Rugby Under-20s Championship in the summer. On Friday night he gave Ellis Genge a send-off that can only be described as ballsy at Bristol after the England prop’s substitution.
There may be a short-term price to pay for it. Genge, for all the warmth of his post-match cuddle for the London Irish academy product, will have noted the date of the return fixture and be feasting on raw meat ahead of it. But it underlined that even so soon into his senior career Fasogbon is not short of self-confidence.
Opoku-Fordjour, who came through at Wasps, is highly-rated too – maybe even more so. He was used at loose-head by the England U20s side so has the advantage of versatility but he prefers the number three jersey.
Add in Sela – a converted 6ft 4in, 18st back row – and there is a London bus situation threatening to emerge at tight-head.
POV: You outscrum the England prop & captain then get stuck in 😄
20 year-old Afolabi Fasogbon is not shy of confidence!#GallagherPrem | #BRIvGLO pic.twitter.com/zK9XmKbbS1
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) September 27, 2024
Who will be the first to upgrade to the national team will depend to a degree on who is given more time on the field by their club but so far there has been a welcome willingness to expose all of them.
The contraction of the Premiership to 10 clubs had led to concerns that opportunities for young English players would be reduced. Instead, the opposite seems to be happening. Openings that would have been filled by overseas imports not so long ago are now being filled by home-grown talent.
There is a stick element to this virtuous selection. Clubs need to meet the required quota of England-qualified players this season or they can be fined up to £250,000. Over the course of the season each club must average 15 of them in their matchday 23.
Newcastle are a bargain-basement operation and it makes sense for them to promote their own youngsters but even for those lucky few clubs spending up to the salary cap there is an incentive to shop local.
But, regardless, the financial realities of English rugby which have led to three clubs going to the wall have persuaded more clubs to look inwards rather than out.
Harlequins had two 21-year-olds – hooker Nathan Jibulu and wing Cassius Cleaves – on the pitch against Newcastle. The Falcons trumped that with two teenagers – wing Ben Redshaw, who was also part of the victorious England age group side in South Africa, and scrum-half Joe Davis, fresh out of schoolboy rugby in Durham.
Newcastle are a bargain-basement operation and it makes sense for them to promote their own youngsters but even for those lucky few clubs spending up to the salary cap there is an incentive to shop local.
Players still on academy contracts who have been brought up through a club’s own system like, say Sela, don’t count towards the cap. So while the star signings may have been thin on the ground over the summer, the Premiership has been busy making its own stars instead.
Saracens wing Tobias Elliott and Bath flanker Guy Pepper are two others to have shone in September. Elliott’s career stats currently stand at two games, two tries – one an absolute blinder of a fancy-footwork finish against Gloucester. Pepper, who made his Bath debut on week one after his summer move from Newcastle, burrowed over for his first try for the club at the weekend. They are both just 21.
As is Exeter’s barn door-bursting number eight Greg Fisilau. His Chiefs teammate, Paul Brown-Bampoe, has arrived from Durham University having played for England Students, is one year older and been given a run on the wing.
Not all of these players will make it through the sausage-machine to Test rugby but a leg-up to league rugby at this formative stage is a great platform for them. For Borthwick it is excellent news.
The coach has already shown his openness to embracing youth in his fast-tracking of the fresh-faced Harlequins prop Fin Baxter who made his England debut in New Zealand over the summer and Manny Feyi-Waboso, the Exeter wing who is six caps into his Test career already at 21. The choice is there for him now to go early with other players.
Andy Robinson did his best when he was England coach to ruin the teenage Mathew Tait by throwing him into Test rugby too early.
He will need to pick and choose, of course, and box clever in some cases. Andy Robinson did his best when he was England coach to ruin the teenage Mathew Tait by throwing him into Test rugby too early. Gavin Henson ate him for breakfast in Cardiff and it took Tait years to get over the experience.
By the same token 80 minutes against the Springboks or All Blacks front row in the autumn for a 20-year-old tight-head might not be the brightest idea. But an autumn programme which also features dates against Japan and Australia might provide a chance to look at an Opoku-Fordjour or a Fasogbon in an England shirt. Of course they need to keep their heads above water in the Premiership over the coming weeks first. But so far so good for them – and the rest of the new generation.
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