By BEN JAYCOCK
Ben Waghorn could have become a rugby league player rather than playing the 15-a-side game but the Harlequins and England U20s centre, who is fairly fresh to the top level, is confident he made the right choice.
Despite growing up in south London, the 19-year-old played both codes as a youngster and for 10 years travelled almost an hour with his father to play for rugby league club, Elmridge Eagles.
Having been a part of the London Broncos academy it looked like Waghorn was set to play league until Harlequins came knocking while he was in sixth form.
“I actually grew up preferring league,” Waghorn said. “I did some stuff at London Broncos but later got picked up by Harlequins at U17s. I always played both but I was probably better at union than I was at league because of playing union at school. My greater knowledge of union made me go for that instead of league.”
Waghorn says the main transferable skill from league to union is tackling, with the bone crunching collisions preparing him well for his time at Harlequins and the England age grade pathway.
“Tackling is the main one because in league you get the 10m head start and players can run straight at you which makes you put your head where you don’t want to put it,” he said.
A versatile back, Waghorn has operated on the wing as well as both inside and outside centre, and lined up at 12 yesterday for England U20s against Bath‘s academy.
He said: “I played wing last year for the U20s but this year I’m trying to stick to 13 which is my preferred position. I played 12 against Exeter earlier in the season and do get chucked on the wing time to time as well. The regular 12 right now for England is Sean Kerr who is also part of Harlequins, so it’s great we’re from the same club. There’s a couple good centres here and the competition is good.
“I’ve made loads of mates being in U20s camps. It was great last year being able to travel, going to Georgia, South Africa and Portugal. I feel I’ve developed a lot.”
Waghorn is enjoying his time at Quins and has made six Premiership Cup appearances across the past two seasons. Having been sent out on loan to National Two East side Worthing last year, Waghorn has excelled this season at Championship side London Scottish, who have an official partnership with Harlequins.
“Being at Harlequins has developed my skills so much being under pressure and taking my game to the next level, while being surrounded by great players,” said Waghorn. “I’ve scored three tries this season for Scottish and have really enjoyed it. It’s a great level as well, a bit slower but more physical and is a real learning curve.”
Having come off the bench to play in three Six Nations games last season, Waghorn is hoping to nail a starting place in Mark Mapletoft’s side. He added: “I want to get as much game time for the U20s as possible and want to be a starting player to really try and drive my standards going forward.
“Teams may look at us as a bit of a softer team after last year but this time round we’re going to try and do it probably.”
