GUNS YOUNG
Ask Ollie Wynn to reveal his scrumhalf role models and he reels off an impressive list of top draw individuals he studies closely and draws inspiration from.
As a former fly-half and full-back who was persuaded to give No.9 a crack around the age of 15, the former Whitchurch RFC junior says: “Because of my background I’m more of a running scrum-half so I like to compare myself with someone like Cobus Reinach.
“I’ve watched him a lot over the last two years and that’s the player I want to be. In the academy league I picked up quite a few tries through support play, which obviously he’s very good at, and I’ve been picking up a lot of useful tips from his running lines.”
Wynn, 18, adds: “I like to look at specifics in other guys so with Cobus it’s his running, footwork and support play, while for kicking and passing it’s Aaron Smith. I like to look at how he positions himself, gets low and where his hands finish – the technical stuff.
“At the club we’ve got Francois Hougaard, who I look up to, and Faf de Klerk works his socks off for Sale, but Reinach and Smith are the guys
I look at mainly and you can’t go wrong with them.
“Another person I admire quite a lot is
Gareth
Simpson at Worcester.
At 22, he’s not too far ahead of me age-wise and is close to breaking through, plus he’s a top bloke who I’ve trained with quite a bit and played Sevens alongside, so he’s very supportive to me.”
Shrewsbury-born Wynn attended the same Bishop Heber School, in Malpas, as Ben Foden and the Curry twins, Tom and Ben, before switching to the equally renowned Bromsgrove School.
A keen all-round sportsman, he might have opted for football but rugby always held sway.
He explained: “I played quite a high level of football when I was eight or nine and was with the Wolves academy. I didn’t like the idea of touch rugby, I wanted to tackle and get stuck in, but as soon as I could play contact rugby I switched back permanently.
“I did all kinds of sports when I was young – athletics and gymnastics as well and I even did a bit of ballet – but rugby was always my passion. My family has close ties with Whitchurch and my dad coached there, so it was the natural thing to do.” Wynn’s progress saw him called into the England U18s Six Nations squad before Covid-19 put paid to that.
Undaunted, he adds: “I’d been disappointed not to make the U16s so to make the U18s this year was an honour and I was very pleased with that.
“It’s a shame it got called off but I’ve got a lot to look forward to at Worcester now and it’s great to know Alan Solomons is looking at promoting youth. We’ve got superb role models here like Ted Hill so I’ll work very hard and look to make an impact.”