England Rugby World Cup star Henry Arundell was made unemployed less than 90 days before his five-star showing against Chile after London Irish went bust. The 20-year-old was in scintillating form at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille on Saturday and crossed the whitewash five times as England thrashed the South American team 71-0.
Arundell joined the London Irish academy as a 14-year-old and made his Gallagher Premiership debut in February 2022. And he was called up to the England squad after featuring just six times in English rugby’s top-flight.
After impressing for England at the Six Nations earlier this year, the winger was included in Steve Borthwick’s squad for the Rugby World Cup. But he lost his job after Irish went into administration following the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
“Ultimately you have to move on quickly – that’s the nature of it,” Arundell explained as he spoke about Irish’s demise in the aftermath of England’s latest win. “But it was a sad time for a lot of people. There was a bit of me that was playing for those lads. A lot of them wished me luck.
“I was lucky we went straight into England camp four days later so I was able to distract myself. It was tougher on lads who took quite a long time maybe to get a new club. It was about supporting them. While I was focusing on the rugby side of things, they are close friends of mine and always will be. Those lads are special.”
At the end of June, Arundell was still unemployed as he searched for a way to continue his career at the top level. And he found a new club after former England head coach Stuart Lancaster handed him a contract to play for Racing 92 in France.
Racing 92 finished fifth in the Top 14 last season and Arundell is set to link-up with his new team-mates following his endeavours with England at the Rugby Word Cup. Under current selection criteria, he will be banned from appearing for his country while he is playing outside of England. And his only focus now is on helping Borthwick’s team lift the trophy in France.
“You don’t want to get too high or too low,” the player added. “That’s the key. It’s great scoring five tries – but in the grand scheme of things we haven’t won the World Cup. We still need to win the group. It’s fun having individual stuff, but the main priority is winning the tournament.”
