Time for Arundell to prove his worth

BEFORE Henry Arundell left for France he was the talk of the town. His tries were all over social media and his form for London Irish had lots of people talking, and coaches salivating over his talent.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

Then he broke into the England team, and his impact was immediate, scoring a spectacular debut try against Australia on the 2022 summer tour.

I believe there were a couple of English clubs in the hunt to sign him when London Irish went bust, but he chose France, and on the outside, with all the international players in the Racing 92 squad, and Stuart Lancaster as coach, it all looked promising. However, for a number of reasons, including injuries, he didn’t really flourish.

His return to England after signing for Bath has put him back in England head coach Steve Borthwick’s eyeline again, and it saw him parachuted straight back into the most recent England training squad preparing for the tour of Argentina.

Arundell is still only 22, but you get the sense he was disappointed he didn’t get much of a run for England in the 2023 World Cup. Selection didn’t go his way despite scoring five tries in the big pool-stage win over Chile, but it carried the message that every coach has to use his best players to win a World Cup, and he obviously didn’t impress Borthwick quite enough.

The experience of living in Paris should be fantastic for a young player, and Arundell will have learned a lot from living in a big city and with a different culture and language.

So, in terms of Arundell’s personal development, maturity, and having a bigger vision, his time in the French capital should have been a big plus.

His future at Bath also looks very promising because he is now joining what head coach Johann van Graan calls a rugby family, and a team with a mission, and a growing culture, in a real rugby hotbed.