Steffon Armitage tipped to make international impact – Rugby News Update
Steffon Armitage, the 26-year-old England and Toulon flanker, has been tipped by his coach, Bernard Laporte, to make a big impact on the international scene sooner rather than later.
Armitage has not been included in Stuart Lancaster’s England team that will tour South Africa for a three-match test series, along with playing two other mid-week games this summer. Under the current rules, the Rugby Football Union does not allow a player
playing in a foreign league to be selected for national duty, unless it is under exceptional circumstances.
"In terms of playing for England, the tour of South Africa was not the be-all and end-all," Laporte told the
Rugby Paper. "If he continues to produce performances like he has been recently there is no way he will be ignored. His future belongs to him, but if he carries on the way he's going at the moment I'm sure he will be playing for England come the Six
Nations.”
Armitage has the perfect build for a flanker but he has not featured for England as much as he would have liked, even though he and brother Delon featured together for their home country, the first pair of brothers to feature together for England since Rory
and Tony Underwood.
He is a graduate of the Saracens' academy and he played for them for a year before making the switch to London Irish. He played for the Irish from 2006 to 2011, and moved across the channel to play in the Top 14 with Toulon.
It was at London Irish where Armitage made his name, and his impressive performances earned him a call-up to England Saxons for the 2008 Churchill Cup, where they ran out as eventual winners. His international debut was not far behind, and he made his test
bow against Italy at Twickenham, on February 7, 2009.
This year the 26-year-old flanker has been named the player of the season, and Laporte is not surprised by that decision. He is a consistent performer and hardly ever has a bad game.
If he is to add to the 5 international caps for England, he might need to make a switch back to the Aviva Premiership.
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