By TOM JEFFREYS
As BUCS Super Rugby eagerly awaits its return on January 24th, there is no better time to look back on the league’s biggest milestone yet.
November 3rd saw its 100th and 101st BSR alumni selected for a professional team since its inception in 2016. Incidentally, that weekend was also the first time that all Gallagher Premiership teams fielded a BSR alum.
The spotlight on BSR’s talent production took a huge leap when Eddie Jones‘ selection of Cardiff Met alumni Alex Dombrandt and Luke Northmore prompted him to say “every club is looking in the bars of Cardiff Met. It seems to be a breeding ground for test match players”.
Dombrandt is arguably the highest profile BSR graduate; he scored a record 16 tries in 17 games in 2016/17 and has since won 15 England caps.
Indeed, a young back row should look no further than Met. Aaron Wainwright has also donned their Super BUCS shirt, as well as Tom Pearson, who featured in the 2019 BSR team of the year.
However, the most ubiquitous university presence is that of Bath’s, who at the time of hitting 101 players had a leading 20 representatives playing professional rugby. 13 of which, through their tightly knit pathway, have played for Bath, including Miles Reid and Max Ojomah.
Given 7/10 BSR teams are English, the Premiership is home to the most BSR influence. However, the university’s premier rugby league also has representation internationally. Exeter University’s Sam Skinner and Loughborough’s Jake Kerr have both played for Scotland, whilst Hartpury have produced 76 caps for Italy through Seb Negri and Stephen Varney.
Whilst Ireland have yet to cap a BSR alumni, Exeter’s Chris Moore is currently playing for Munster. France are also still waiting, but everyone’s favourite cliche rugby fact is that Thibaud Flament used to play fly half for Loughborough’s fifth team before representing their National League side.
Perhaps Flament was so far down the Loughborough pecking order because his degree coincided with Freddie Steward‘s and Dan Kelly’s, two of the more recent outstanding BSR graduates. There are, however, plenty more recent graduates than them, and next week’s column will have a look at some of these more recent alumni tipped for big things.
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