Club: Saracens
Position: Wing/Centre
International Honours: England (6 caps), England Sevens
Sometimes a change is good for the soul – and if David Strettle’s first 40-minutes as a Saracen is anything to go by, his move may prove to be the reigniting his career has been looking for.
He scored after his introduction at the weekend against Sale, and some of the pace and strength which won him his first six England caps and the 2007 Professional Rugby Players’ Association Young Player of the Season was back.
But since then, two injuries have hampered his development which saw him miss the World Cup in France and then pull out of the Six Nations a year later, and the fear was another English talent had gone to waste.
The signs from Saracens’ 28-13 victory looked extremely positive for the winger and there were glimpses of his old best. At 27 he is not the spring chicken his looks would lead people to believe and he has an awful lot of competition to wrestle his place back into England’s starting XV.
Though he was selected in Martin Johnson’s Elite Performance Squad, he still has Mark Cueto, Chris Ashton and Matt Banahan to contend with along with the likes of Ugo Monye and Tom Varndell breathing down his neck.
Chances of flying to New Zealand: 7/10 – As long as Strettle stays fit, his jinking running akin to Jason Robinson should see him easily make his long awaited trip to the World Cup. Unlike the more direct and powerful runners also on offer for England, he is a different option which could unlock some of the world’s best drilled defences with his unpredictable lines and squirming knack to find his way over the whitewash.
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