Rugby World Cup Stock Check: 247 days to go

As domestic rugby continues apace, who enhanced their chances of international recognition at the weekend, with just nine months to go until the Rugby World Cup 2015 kicks off?

GOING UP

Sam Burgess
Bath, England
Burgess’ name has probably featured in 90% of articles written over the past few weeks, but this time we won’t be discussing his acclimatisation to union but rather a genuinely class performance. Against Wasps he properly put his physicality to good use, beating 10 defenders a scoring a well-finished try. The Six Nations will likely come too soon for him, but his steep learning curve seems to be plateauing a bit and if he continues to perform like this, it’ll becoming increasingly tough to ignore the clamour for his inclusion that will come with it.

Nick Easter
Harlequins, England
Easter continued to defy his age with another man of the match performance against Leicester and in a week when Ben Morgan was ruled out for the long-term, the noise surrounding his potential shock recall to the England set-up has reached a crescendo. He, along with Nathan Hughes (whose eligibility comes a year too late), is the form number eight in the Premiership and is rumoured to be meeting with Lancaster this week to discuss any return to the squad. One stumbling block could be his alleged role as a potentially divisive figure in previous England set-ups, especially given the premium Lancaster puts on team unity.

Jack Conan
Leinster, Ireland
Realistically, with Jamie Heaslip ahead of him in both the Leinster and the Ireland pecking order, it is probably a couple of years too soon to be talking about Conan’s international prospects. That said, the way he has burst onto the scene this new year has been astonishing. Against Cardiff at the weekend he topped the tackle stats with 22, and was his pack’s second biggest accumulator of metres with ball in hand. If he continues in this vein, the 22 year old will be making his Ireland debut sooner rather than later.

Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
Edinburgh, Scotland
Going into the weekend no side had won at the Sportsground in the PRO12, a record down in part to the horrendous conditions that seem to sweep over Galway on a regular basis. It made Hidalgo-Clyne’s composed performance with the boot even more impressive, with the wind and rain on Friday night in the west of Ireland more horrific than usual. Hidalgo-Clyne is another precociously talented player at the age of just 21, and as a goal-kicking scrum-half he could well follow in the footsteps of Greig Laidlaw in the not too distant future.

Josh Navidi
Cardiff Blues, Wales
Wales’ back row competition is heating up nicely ahead of the Six Nations. Navidi, since switching to number eight, has an incredible four man of the match awards from five starts, and if you were picking purely on form, he would start against England on February 6th. Against Leinster he might have been on the wrong side of the scoreboard but individually, he stood out once again, leading his side’s defensive charge with 20 tackles, and also making more metres than anyone else on his team – especially impressive after Cardiff were reduced to 14 men. Given his versatility, expect to see him feature in the Six Nations at some stage.

GOING DOWN

Billy Twelvetrees
Gloucester, England
Rarely can there have been a more frustrating rugby player than Billy Twelvetrees. Blessed with all the capabilities to be a world class player, he still hasn’t found a way to use them on a consistent basis. Against Saracens at the weekend he captained Gloucester to a dramatic victory, but the butchered two on one in the opening minutes was so bad even his coaches must have been cringing. It was a failure a prop would have been ashamed off, let alone a supposed international centre. It could well be that his ship has now sailed.

Taulupe Faletau
Dragons, Wales
Faletau has historically saved his best form for the red shirt of Wales, and is a bona fide Gatland favourite, so perhaps we shouldn’t read too much into his club form. That said, with the likes of Navidi and (previously) Dan Baker performing so well, he will surely start to feel a bit of heat if he continues to underperform in a faltering Dragons side. Against the Ospreys at the weekend his side enjoyed 60% of possession and territory, and yet Faletau managed to carry for just four metres from five attempts. Not enough on either count for a man playing in a position where you are expected to be one of the primary sources of go-forward ball.

Ben Youngs
Leicester Tigers, England
The Danny Care vs Ben Youngs battle was one of the most intriguing subplots to the Harlequins vs Tigers game at the weekend, and the Leicester man came off comfortably second best. Youngs could only look on as his rival scored one and set up another, and generally zipped around with much more energy. He is the incumbent and will likely be given the chance to start in the Six Nations, but being so blatantly outplayed by your main positional rival is obviously not ideal.

By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43