Players to watch this Gallagher Premiership season

For all the tales of financial woe, the Gallagher Premiership remains one of rugby’s most coveted leagues, a bucket-list destination for players and supporters alike. After a mammoth World Cup season, the tournament revs into action once more this weekend, throwing up a new array of storylines and heroes in waiting. Here are seven players worth following closely.

Guy Pepper, Bath

His class and character burned bright in a foundering Newcastle team last season. Pepper is a proper fetcher, ravenous in his pursuit of tackles and turnovers. He shattered the Premiership record for tackles in a single game with 35 against Saracens and only two players made more over the course of the season.

Guy Pepper has swapped the Northeast for the West Country this season (Photo by Bob Bradford - CameraSport via Getty Images)

Pepper is only 21, but conquered significant injury strife in his fledgling career, at one stage having a pig tendon inserted in his foot to repair the one he’d damaged. Last year was a statement season, his coming of age in a team with little resources and no victories earning him an England call-up during the Six Nations.

Bath need to manage Sam Underhill and should get huge bang for their buck from the abrasive young openside.

Rodrigo Isgro, Harlequins

If you’re not a sevens follower, you might shrug your shoulders at the Argentine’s arrival in England. If you are, you’ll have practically fallen off your chair when the news broke. Isgro has been so irresistibly good on the HSBC SVNS Series for so long, with quadriceps the size of Christmas hams and a frightening arsenal of skills. He’s the reigning sevens world player of the year for the reigning SVNS league champions.

Argentina rule the skies in the abbreviated game and Isgro is their chief aerial weapon. He’s a breakdown monster, and melds his explosive power to keen vision and silky handling, scoring a heap and setting up plenty more for Pumas poacher Marcos Moneta. It’s a potent cocktail which makes him one of sevens’ most lethal operators.

Isgro was compelling enough to play for Argentina in the Rugby Championship and even make last year’s Rugby World Cup squad selected by Michael Cheika. How will he take to the 15-man game on a full-time basis? How will he adapt to the Premiership? It’ll be a fascinating watch.

Finn Carnduff, Leicester Tigers

The kind of all-action snarler the Tigers have been producing for donkeys’, since the days of the storied ABC club and beyond. Carnduff is Leicester born and bred, coming to Welford Road as a boy and later joining the club’s renowned academy.

He has skippered England’s Under-20 side to some exceptional results this year, a Six Nations title followed by a tremendous run to U20 World Championship glory in South Africa. Precious experiences against the cream of age-grade rugby, and more knowledge to add to his leadership supply. He’s an impressive speaker and a visceral presence on the pitch, his expletive roar when England bulldozed the South African pack to score a crucial try captured by the TV cameras.

Carnduff played six Premiership games last season, starting an East Midlands derby and producing a match-winning turnover at the end of a 100-minute epic at Newcastle. The pathway to the Premiership is not always straightforward, even for England’s finest U20 talent, but he should see plenty action this year and burnish his growing reputation.

Christian Wade, Gloucester

In a recent social media video where Wade was instructed to keep quiet until he heard the interviewer name a better try-scorer than himself, Gloucester’s new signing passed over Jonny May, Chris Ashton and Bryan Habana before finally caving on Shane Williams. “Habana, bro, you serious?” commented Louis Rees-Zammit, his fellow NFL recruit, the man he has replaced at Kingsholm and another name for which Wade kept schtum.

The winger’s try return is astonishingly good – 82 in the Premiership alone, placing him fifth on the league’s all-time list and 19 behind leader Ashton. Given he’s spent six years out of the competition, it’s some feat – a try every 121 Premiership minutes.

Wade returns to England after three years on the Buffalo Bills NFL practice squad and another two at Racing 92, and Gloucester need his wit, speed and nous. They have lost Rees-Zammit to the USA and May to France, and limped meek and rudderless through the league last year, buttressed only by their success in the Premiership Rugby and Challenge Cups.

George Skivington’s headline recruits – Wade, Gareth Anscombe and Tomos Williams – are all massively experienced and each will be expected to make a substantial impact. How dearly Wade would love to beak Ashton’s record. He’s a better finisher, after all…

Zack Wimbush, Exeter Chiefs

England and Wales are reportedly vying for Wimbush’s allegiance, and it’s easy to see why. The centre stands at a towering 6ft 6ins and produced some head-turning cameos for Exeter Chiefs last year. According to WalesOnline, no player across the URC, Top 14, Super Rugby or Premiership made more post-contact metres - an incredible stat, and a stark illustration of Wimbush’s physical attributes.

Born in Hong Kong, he can play in either centre berth or on the wing, and is expected to start the season at 13 for Exeter given Henry Slade’s injury absence. That would be a fabulous opportunity to nail down a starting berth, and further press his case for international honours in a regenerated team bursting with youth and pep.

Word is, the Dragons, Scarlets and Cardiff are all keen to lure the 20-year-old across the Severn, and Warren Gatland has been credited with an interest in selecting him for Wales’ autumn squad.

Waisea Nayacalevu, Sale Sharks

As sacrilegious as it sounds to downplay Manu Tuilagi’s greatness, Sale should get more minutes, and a greater impact, from the ageless Fiji skipper. Nayacalevu was one of the very best midfielders in the world last year, breathtaking before and during the World Cup on his country’s quest for history, and already looks ominously good for Sale with four tries in three pre-season matches.

Nayacalevu dazzled in the Top 14 for over a decade, winning the league and a Challenge Cup with Stade Francais, then another European crown at Toulon. Like Agustin Creevy before him, he totes a huge wealth of Test experience and leadership in his luggage bound for Manchester.

Sale continue to evolve their attack and with Nayacalevu’s scything runs and wonderous offloads, they will have the panache to compliment their punch.

At 34, there is almost nothing to suggest the Fijian’s powers are on the wane, but he has confirmed his stint at Sale is likely to be his last contract before retirement. Nayacalevu is box-office. Enjoy him while he’s here.

Tom Gordon, Newcastle Falcons

Only a few years ago, rugby folk in Scotland were licking their lips at the New Zealand-born scrapper and his potential in the game. Then along popped Rory Darge and rather stole Gordon's thunder. The older flanker remains uncapped and left Scotstoun this summer to seek more regular first-team minutes.

He will find them in Newcastle, for sure. Signed as Pepper's replacement, Gordon is a brilliantly abrasive openside, all anger and gusto on both sides of the ball, punching well above his 100kg weight. He's never played for Steve Diamond, but if you were to sculpt a 'Dimes'-style flanker, he'd tick virtually every box. The 27-year-old is a shrewd pilferer at the breakdown and a skilled link player in attack, as shown repeatedly in the pre-season match at Sale. He seems enthused by the fresh challenge and his appetite for work insatiable. "A revelation", is how Diamond put it in his press conference this week.

Newcastle will be far more competitive this term than last, but will still require a lot of defensive shovelling. Gordon can change the narrative with his dynamism, turnovers and close-quarter carries.