You snooze, you lose ...
THE teenager who is fast becoming rugby's next superstar, Henry Arundell of London Irish, is eligible to play for England, Wales and Scotland and with all three countries embarking on tours to the southern hemisphere in June, the million-dollar question is whose colours will he be wearing?
The 19-year-old fullback was schooled in England and this year played for England's Under-20 team but Eddie Jones will know he has to move fast to bag the youngster at the senior level because Scotland's Gregor Townsend, in particular, has a voracious appetite for spreading his net beyond the borders of Scotland.
Arundel's try last weekend in London Irish's 19-18 defeat by Toulon in the Champions Cup was simply majestic and had the excited commentator calling it “the try to end all tries”.
It really was special – he received the ball near his tryline and showed scorching speed, change of pace, and nifty side-stepping to wrongfoot a procession of Toulon defenders before he scored at the corner flag at the other end of the field. Arundell has made a habit of scoring epic tries – including two for London Irish in their English Premiership semi-final against Leicester – and already has a six-minute YouTube try package called “Henry' Arundell's Best Moments so far”.
From a military family, Arundell went to one of England's top rugby schools, Harrow, and has been in England's junior systems, so you would think he will go on to wear the Red Rose. Jones is taking England to Australia next month and if you don't see Arundell being capped against the Wallabies that will mean he is either with Wales in South Africa or Scotland in Argentina. But surely Eddie won't snooze on this one …