Meet Matt Symons - the kid rejected by Saracens now captaining Sonny Bill Williams

The Premiership academy system is rightly lauded for its success in promoting
domestic talent – last season England
Qualified Players made up more than 70 per cent of Premiership squads – but
an unintended consequence has been to narrow the pathway available for late
developers to get a foot on the ladder.




Matt Symons is one such player to have slipped the net.

At 17, the second row
was, by his own admission, “a lanky rake”.

He was let go by Saracens and
after a short spell in British Rowing’s talent identification programme,
which added plenty of muscle to his 6…