Spittle: Late Developers May Be Lost To The Game

Nottingham's history-making winger Jack Spittle fears more late bloomers like himself may be potentially lost to the professional game because of Championship funding cuts.

- Jon Newcombe

Spittle, 25, went down the university route instead of through a Premiership academy system and his first proper taste of senior rugby before going full-time came at National 2 North Leicester Lions while still a student at Nottingham Trent.

Now in his third season as a contracted professional, Spittle has come into his own and on January 31 became first Nottingham player to score five tries in a league match – one of them a length-of-the-field try of the season contender – in the Green & Whites’ 6210 rout of Yorkshire Carnegie.

“People develop at different times – some lads virtually had a beard by the time they were ten whereas I matured much later,” he told The Rugby Paper.

“I did pretty well with my school (Northampton School for Boys), we got to the national finals, but I never really pushed on.