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Looking ahead at the rugby stars of tomorrow

Roar Guru
18th December, 2009
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Roar Guru
18th December, 2009
7

Following on from Sam’s excellent article, An International Rugby Team Of The Decade, I thought I’d look at some of the young players right now that could be tomorrow’s superstars.

It’s naturally all very subjective, given most have yet to prove themselves over a consistent amount of time.

The only criteria is that they have to have played international rugby already and will, barring injury, still play at this level in 2013. A little bit of reasoning also goes along way to explain your choice.

15 – Rob Kearney: Safe as houses, howitzer boot and not afraid to take on the defense. What more do you want from your fullback?
14 – Tommy Bowe: A constant threat, I think we will see a lot more from him in the future
13 – Yann David: Haven’t seen a hell of a lot the French man, but he wreaks of class.
12 – Jamie Roberts: Lions player of the series, says it all
11 – Digby Ioane: Already making a mark as an explosive runner
10 – Berrick Barnes: A class act, composed, with vision, good footwork and educated boot
9 – Will Genia: Already shown some crisp service and great footwork
8 – Pierre Spies: A lot of hype behind this one but the man is a freak and if he can translate the Super 14 performances into the Test arena, it will be something.
7 – Heinrich Brussouw: The fetcher/flanker find of the year. He has proven himself a handful to almost all teams he has played against. It will be interesting to see if that can be maintained as teams look to negate him
6 – Rocky Elsom: Already an established performer who will only get better
5 – Isaac Ross: I was surprised when Graham Henry didn’t take him on tour as he had a very good season
4 – Andries Bekker: Maybe controversial as I personally think he is a 5 but for lack of quality 4s at the moment, I have put him in
3 – Ben Alexander: This was the only young TH I could think of. Pity Barcela plays on the LH
2 – Bismark du Plessis: Powerful hooker, an extra flank in the loose who has also forced his captain out of position
1 – Benn Robinson: Find of the decade for Australian frontrow forwards. It was a pick between him and his twin Euan Murray, but the nuggety Robinson has been sticking it to every TH he faces with aplomb

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