Too Much Too Young: Nine rugby players who peaked too early

Despite becoming an England international aged 19 and being a World Cup finalist in 2007, Tait’s test career came to a conclusion in 2010 after 34 caps. Still only 24 at the time, another injury ruled him out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He has since become a mainstay of the Leicester Tigers backline but has never really come close to earning an England recall.

The man who tackled Tait. Despite two Six Nations winner’s medals, Henson falls firmly into the category of those that failed to fulfill their potential. But despite his love for hobnobbing with C-list celebrities, appearing on reality TV shows and bottled tan, all of which seemed to take precedence over his rugby, Henson actually didn’t have that bad a career. Now struggling for gametime at the Dragons, it could have been so much better!

Sir Clive Woodward was appointed England coach in 1997 and picked the 20-year-old prop on potential for his first match in charge against Australia. However, Long played poorly and only won one further cap for his country.

The scrum-half was named in the Wales squad to tour New Zealand in summer 2010, making his debut against New Zealand in Dunedin as a second-half replacement aged 20. He went onto win just 11 caps, all in the next year, before retiring aged 28 following a serious knee ligament injury. He's since  opened the Unit 9 gym in Neath

He won 23 caps for England between 2001 and 2008, and such was his early reputation that he featured for England, aged 20, before his club debut with Bath. The strange thing about Barkley is that it is hard to say where it went wrong. He is not blessed with great pace, but kicked well from the tee and out of hand, is a fine distributor and hardly a defensive weakness. He remains one of the biggest mysteries of English rugby from the 2000s.

Hanley, aged 20, was one of two Sale players to make their international debut in England’s final match of their 1999 Five Nations campaign along with Barrie-Jon Mather. Although Hanley scored a try, this proved to be his only ever international appearance.

After being nominated for Breakthrough player of the year in 2016; he won three caps for the Brave Blossoms the same year, scoring three tries, and was labelled the ‘Japanese Jonah Lomu’. The 22-year-old nevertheless hasn’t played for Japan since and has struggled to make an impression for the Sunwolves in Super Rugby.

There was a time when Atiga was seen as such a potent attacking weapon that British Lions coach Clive Woodward singled out the Aucklander as the man of whom he was most wary ahead of the 2005 tour to New Zealand. But despite the centre/fullback looking set for superstardom, he only played one test for the All Blacks, against Tonga in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

On 26 November 2005, aged 20, he scored a try against Manu Samoa at Twickenham in his first full 15-man international. Despite going on to become the Premiership’s all-time record scorer the speedster has only won four caps.