Rugby Players Released as Youngsters Who Still Had Successful Careers

This leaves a selection of players cast aside in their youth, with their rugby playing dreams dashed before their careers have even begun.

Occasionally a talented teenager will slip through the net, but another coach will see something in a player that one team might have missed.

Let's take a look at the players released as youngsters that have gone on to prove a few people wrong.

After Harlequins failed to offer him a professional contract aged 18, the lock left the club and joined National League 2 South side Worthing for the 2009–10 season while also stacking shelves in Sainsburys.

After impressing in the National Leagues, he subsequently signed with Wasps academy before becoming a first team regular. Launchbury is now one of England’s most-capped second rows having passed the half-century mark during the 2018 Six Nations.

The Manchester-born flanker moved to Oakham in Rutland and was at the Leicester Tigers Academy until his late teens. Following his release, he moved to Scotland where he would then play for Edinburgh and subsequently Scotland.

He was a member of the Saracens Academy for three years during his teens before being released. He then moved to New Zealand at the age of 18. Francis then returned to the UK to play for Edinburgh and Doncaster Knights before returning to the Southern Hemisphere.

He’s since returned to England with Northampton Saints and has also won eight caps for England since making his debut against Argentina in 2017.

At the age of just 17, Underhill made his debut for Gloucester in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, before making his Premiership debut at the age of 18.

He’d only make two appearances before being released, with the flanker subsequently joining Ospreys. The Cherry & Whites were not keen for him to combine his studies with rugby and he was let go by his hometown club.

Underhill then joined Bath, and has become a regular under Eddie Jones with England.

Despite being from Bath and being a Bath fan, he left the Blue, Black and Whites for Gloucester’s academy in 2008 after he wasn't offered a professional contract.

The number 10 turned professional with the Cherry and Whites before joining Leicester Tigers. Burns then rejoined his boyhood club in 2017 before departing at the end of the 2019/20 season