Eddie Jones must act fast to avoid losing rising star
Eddie Jones has seen plenty of players in his squads fall through the net and go on to play for other countries during his time in charge of England.
The majority have gone on to play for Scotland or Wales, and though Jones has never seemed particularly vexed at this exodus, he may not want it to happen again.
Well the Australian may now face a battle to keep hold of a player that has not even been in one of his camps yet, but surely will be if he is not snapped up before. The player in question is London Irish’s 19-year-old Henry Arundell.
The fullback has already caught the eye of many fans during the under-20s Six Nations, where he scored some blistering tries for England. He has primarily been used in the Premiership Rugby Cup this season for the Exiles, but his two-try performance yesterday against Leicester Tigers in his side’s semi-final victory will make many more take note. These were not ordinary tries either, with his first try of the match easily being a contender for one of the tries of the season.
It was reported in The Rugby Paper in February that Arundell actually qualifies for Scotland as well, meaning there could be an arm wrestle between the two nations. The ball seems to be in England’s court at the moment, but this is not a player they would want to miss out on.
Take a look at his tries:
“Write down the name!”@henry_arundell with a delightful chip and the bounce of the ball goes his way ☘️#PremRugbyCup | #LIRvLEI | @londonirish pic.twitter.com/doLjudEzzr
— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) April 26, 2022
What a game Henry Arundell is having!
It’s a brace of tries for the 19-year-old and @londonirish are out of sight 😅
Look at that footwork! 🔥#PremRugbyCup pic.twitter.com/5UIu4u3xpB
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) April 26, 2022
London Irish:
15 Henry Arundell, 14 James Stokes, 13 Will Joseph, 12 Curtis Rona (Cokanasiga 49), 11 Lucio Cinti, 10 Noel Reid (Atkins 59), 9 Ben White (Englefield 60); 1 Facundo Gigena, 2 Mike Willemse (Cornish 55), 3 Marcel van der Merwe (Parker 49), 4 Chunya Munga, 5 George Nott (Mafi 55), 6 Jack Cooke (c), 7 Ben Donnell, 8 Albert Tuisue (Cunningham-South 58).
Replacements:
16 Matt Cornish, 17 Ciaran Parker, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Jacob Atkins, 23 Phil Cokanasiga.
Leicester Tigers:
15 Bryce Hegarty, 14 Joe Browning (Cusick 60), 13 Kini Murimurivalu (Woodward 73), 12 Juan Pablo Socino, 11 Hosea Saumaki, 10 Dan Lancaster, 9 Jack van Poortvliet (c) (Edwards 67); 1 James Whitcombe (Hurd 41), 2 Tom Cowan-Dickie (Vanes 49), 3 Nephi Leatigaga (Richardson 51), 4 David Douglas Bridge, 5 Lewis Chessum, 6 Scott Hall (Koroiyadi 73), 7 Emeka Ilione (Agbongbon 21), 8 Sean Jansen.
Replacements:
16 Archie Vanes, 17 Dan Richardson, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Tomiwa Agbongbon, 20 Simon Koroiyadi, 21 Sam Edwards, 22 Joseph Woodward, 23 Jacob Cusick
