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Tana Umaga's nephew has certainly made his mark at Wasps
By Online Editors
Wasps have tied Jacob Umaga to a new first-team deal just months after he graduated from their academy.
Umaga was one of eight senior academy players to graduate into the first-team set-up last summer and has been in impressive form in the early stages of the 2019/20 campaign – including a 12-point haul in his man-of-the-match display in last Saturday’s win over at Agen in the European Challenge Cup.
The son of ex-Samoa star Mike and nephew of former All Black Tana, Umaga has scored five tries and racked up 72 points in his 13 first-team appearances to date, while he also shone for Wasps A in the Premiership Rugby Shield last season, racking up 82 points in his seven outings, which included three tries, 26 conversions and five penalties.
The 21-year-old, who has also played at full-back, regularly featured for Yorkshire Carnegie in last season’s Championship following a spell with Auckland in New Zealand where he was part of the side that won the Mitre 10 Cup in 2018.
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young said: “Jacob has gone from strength to strength in the past year, gaining some valuable experience in New Zealand and in the Championship before putting in some quality displays for us in the A League.
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“He’s worked really hard on his game and is now challenging both Lima (Sopoaga) and Billy (Searle) for the No10 jersey – and that competition across the squad is exactly what you want.
“He is still very young and has a lot of room for growth. We’re pleased he has committed his future to the club and hopefully we can help him realise his full potential over the coming years to become a top-end Premiership player.”
Umaga said: “I’m over the moon to sign a new deal. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Wasps so far, coming through the academy and into the first-team while making a lot of good friends.”
The youngster, who has represented England under-18s and 20s, also helped Wasps reach a sixth consecutive Premiership 7s final in September, where he broke the record for the most points in a single competition – with 61 accrued over the two days.
WATCH: Episode six of The Academy, the RugbyPass documentary series on Wasps' rivals Leicester Tigers
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Interesting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
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