Sowrey slams call to cut off Counties pathway

ABANDONING the aspirational county pathway for players at U20s and senior level will have a devastating effect on the ability of club players to push through into professional rugby, warns Yorkshire Carnegie hooker Ben Sowrey.

Sowrey, who progressed through the county pathway with Harrogate before joining Doncaster in 2012, also served Rotherham, Worcester and Newcastle, but believes he would have been denied that chance had there been no county rugby.

RFU cutbacks mean the County Championship has been scrapped this year and next, with no guarantee it will return for season 2021/22.

Sowrey, 29, said: “The gap is difficult enough for the club player that’s not attached to an academy or private school to get into professional rugby and if you do away with that county pathway, a generation of players will be lost.

“My platform to getting picked up by Doncaster was the county system. Through playing at U17s, 18s and 20s level I built up a bit of momentum.

“I had an amazing experience going to Twickenham with Yorkshire U20s, which gave me a taste for it and you think, ‘I’m playing against some of the best in the country here and holding my own so this might be a feasible career if I give it a go’.

“From being in the Yorkshire U17s set-up I started moulding my life around becoming a professional and went on to achieve that ambition in the Premiership, along with a lot of other players who might not otherwise have had that opportunity.”

Citing other examples, Sowrey added: “If you look at guys who were in club rugby but got into the same county pathway as me, there was Carl Kirwan, Alex Rieder, Gareth Denman, Laurence Pearce and Josh Beaumont.

“Dan Bibby, who’s been a stalwart for England 7s, played for Lancashire U20s, as did Richard De Carpentier. That’s from just two counties in one year so if you include all the counties across the country, that’s a massive pipeline of players.

“County rugby, including the England Counties team, is a fantastic development tool. If you cut that pipeline off we’re doing ourselves harm.”