1. Fin Smith (England)
- Age: 21
- Position: Out-half
- Club: Northampton Saints
IN THE ABSCENCES of Owen Farrell (personal reasons) and Marcus Smith (indefinite injury), England’s void at out-half seems altogether less jarring in light of Smith’s masterclass for Northampton Saints away to Munster in the Champions Cup earlier this month.
Smith, 21, has rugby in his blood — and he plays like it. The grandson of former Scotland and Lions prop Tom Elliot, Smith made his Premiership debut for Worcester back in February 2021, at the age of 18.
He amassed 31 first-team appearances for the Warriors before the club was forced to fold in October 2022, and was an uncapped member of Steve Borthwick’s England squad for last year’s Six Nations.
A masterful kicker both from hand and from tee, Smith’s unerring temperament was laid plain as he outshone Ireland out-half Jack Crowley and steered the 14-man Saints through the mud of Thomond Park on a famous day for Northampton rugby.
There is a case to be made that Smith is just a better rugby footballer than Marcus Smith in any case. That he partners England’s incumbent scrum-half Alex Mitchell at club level could convince Borthwick to start him in Rome this weekend, particularly with George Ford struggling for form this season and having only recently recovered from injury.
But even in the slightly more likely scenario that Borthwick leans on Ford’s experience, Fin Smith is a player who should have a big say on the trajectory of England’s tournament.
2. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (England)
- Age: 21
- Position: Wing/Centre
- Club: Exeter Chiefs
Welsh rugby’s loss will become England’s gain through the spring and beyond.
Powerful backline option Feyi-Waboso is a Cardiff man who was shafted by the system — only in this case, it was the Welsh educational system rather than their omnishambolic national rugby union.
Having joined the Cardiff Rugby academy in 2020, Feyi-Waboso was forced to move away from his hometown when he was unable to secure a place studying Medicine at Cardiff University despite having the requisite qualifications.
He landed instead into Birmingham’s Aston University, signing with Wasps who were based in nearby Coventry. Feyi-Waboso had made only two senior appearances for Wasps by the time the club folded in 2022. His subsequent signing by Exeter Chiefs saw him switch his studies to the University of Exeter, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Not least to his country of birth, who are unable to cap Feyi-Waboso under their current, self-imposed rules and will instead now watch one of their hottest rugby products represent England, for whom he qualifies through family heritage.
Opta list Feyi-Waboso as having registered the best dominant-carry rate (77%) and the best dominant-tackle rate (36%) of any player who has played 240-plus minutes in this season’s Premiership, where he currently sits second in the try-scoring charts on five.
Indeed, of the 1,107 players to have made 15-plus carries across the Premiership, URC, and Top 14 this season, Feyi-Waboso has the highest average mileage per carry (11.5 metres).
He could prove a nuclear weapon in an England armoury that has been partly decommissioned by injury.
3. Nicolas Depoortère (France)
- Age: 21
- Position: Centre
- Club: Bordeaux-Bègles
The joint top try-scorer at last summer’s U20 World Cup, dynamic outside centre Depoortère has started 12 of Bordeaux’s 14 games in all competitions this term, turning heads even in one of the world’s most star-studded club-rugby backlines.
The six-foot-four, 94kg midfielder has scored four tries for Yannick Bru’s side — his first two coming away to Racing and La Rochelle — and his form was rewarded when he joined a host of his club teammates in Fabien Galthié’s Six Nations squad.
While he won’t feature against Ireland on Friday, Depoortère has the all-round quality to test Gael Fickou’s grip on the blue 13 shirt and may find himself rotated into a test 15 for games against the likes of Italy and/or Wales.
It’s not out of the question that he will further the Bordeaux monopoly over France’s backline before the end of the championship.
4. Nolann Le Garrec (France)
- Age: 21
- Position: Scrum-half
- Club: Racing 92
While Les Bleus will lean on the electrifying tandem of Bordeaux half-backs Maxime Lucu and Mathieu Jalibert in the absence of Messrs Dupont and Ntamack, it is the introduction of young Racing nine Le Garrec off the bench about which Ireland should be arguably more concerned this Friday.
Le Garrec has scored eight tries in his last seven games for Stuart Lancaster’s side — including a Top 14 hat-trick against Oyonnax — and the new Racing boss must salivate at the prospect of combining him with Owen Farrell from next season.
France’s scrum-half depth chart consists of seven or eight test-level scrum-halves but it is Le Garrec who comes closest to replicating the effervescence and omnipresence of the world’s best player, Dupont.
It would be foolish to compare them at such vastly different junctures in their careers, of course, but Galthíé knew what he saw when he called up the teenaged Le Garrec to his France squad for the summer tour of Japan in 2022.
Make no mistake about it: Le Garrec will make devastating use of whatever minutes he receives in this year’s championship and there will come a day in the not-too-distant future when France boast among their ranks not only the best scrum-half in the world, but the second best to boot.
5. Alessandro Izekor (Italy)
- Age: 23
- Position: Back row
- Club: Benetton
Benetton’s blindside bomber stands at six-foot-five, tips the scales at somewhere around 110kg, and yet he was deemed both fast and aerobically fit enough to play Sevens for Italy on last year’s World Series. May God have mercy on us all.
Born in Brescia to Nigerian parents, Izekor came up at Calvisano for whom he scored 14 tries in 36 appearances at Top 10 level, most of them as a teenager.
Having since honed his skills in the professional ranks with Benetton, Izekor has notched four tries in 11 appearances (nine starts) so far this season and is ranked top-10 in the URC for tackles made with 99.
The 23-year-old Izekor is a live bench option for Gonzalo Quesada, who already boasts a youthful, Benetton-heavy back row in the form of Manuel Zuliani, skipper Michele Lamarao, and Lorenzo Cannone.
6. Alex Mann (Wales)
- Age: 22
- Position: Back row
- Club: Cardiff Rugby
The multi-talented Mann spent two years as an academy footballer with Cardiff City FC in his early teens before returning to rugby, where he went on to captain Wales in back-to-back U20 Six Nations campaigns.
There is a reason why so many Welsh rugby fans see him as Dan Lydiate reincarnate: Opta stats show that Mann has completed over 16 tackles per 80 minutes for Cardiff in the URC this season, which is a league-high among players who have played 500-plus minutes.
His work at Cardiff’s offensive breakdown has been almost as impressive, with a 92% ruck effectiveness across his eight league appearances this season — the third highest of any Welsh player in the URC.
While he may not produce flashes of ball-in-hand brilliance to the same extent as the other players on this list, Mann could prove a vital cog for Warren Gatland’s young side, whose ruck speed was the lowest of any of the World Cup quarter-finalists.