TAKE A PUNT ON HIDDEN GEMS LIKE MICHAEL
AFTER an exhilarating start to the season, the quality on show in the Premiership was more varied this weekend with only Saracens hitting the heights in a commanding victory over Gloucester, and Owen Farrell winning his showdown with danny Cipriani at no 10.
Saracens’ England contingent looked in prime form but overall it was a reality check following an England squad that, aside from the Cipriani furore, was underwhelming a year out from a World Cup where England need to beat France and Argentina just to get out of the pool.
That doesn’t mean to say the squad isn’t full of fine players, but where are England’s young tyros exploding into action, ripping into Test rugby and injecting a massive surge of energy into their teams?
They are out there, of course, but the perennial problem with England is that there are so many players competing for so few places that serious talent gets overlooked and underemployed.
On Saturday I watched Sale against Wasps, which was a middling game even though the two sides avoided the bad weather.
Catching my eye for the first time was Wasps centre Michael Le Bourgeois, playing only his second Premiership game at the age of 28. Operating at no 12, he had Lima Sopoaga inside him and Elliot daly outside, yet he lost nothing in comparison. Indeed, Austin Healey made him man of the match and I can’t disagree.
Everything he did was competent and efficient. He created two tries, his passing looked grooved, he tackled well and ran good lines. He was composed and assured. It wasn’t a stellar performance but he looked to the manner born and I suspect we will be seeing much more from him this season. To come into that Wasps backline and immediately make an impact is no small achievement.
The point about Le Bourgeois is that he has been playing senior rugby in England for 10 years or more. For a decade he had been the standout player at Jersey and then Bedford — he was named Championship player of the season in May — yet the drums only started beating recently, when dai Young dived in to sign him.
How many other players like Le Bourgeois are out there? I suspect possibly hundreds and, in these financially difficult times, Premiership clubs should perhaps look more often to previously unheralded talent close to home rather than break the bank and bring in expensive overseas stars.