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Wales heading North with George

Friday, 10 February 2012

George North (centre)

George North (centre)

Wales' teenage rising star George North will go into Sunday's RBS 6 Nations clash against Scotland being hailed as "a superstar of the game".

Winger North's debut Six Nations campaign, despite being just one game old, has already seen him break a world record. His try against Ireland in Dublin last weekend set a new mark of 10 for most Test touchdowns as a teenager, surpassing the previous best set by Argentina wing Gustavo Jorge.

Given that Jorge scored six of his nine tries against Brazil, while more than half of North's tally came against South Africa, England, Ireland and Argentina, it underlines what a startling impact he has made on international rugby.

Wales coach Warren Gatland described the 19-year-old's display last Sunday as "absolutely world-class," a performance highlighted by a destructive midfield break and brilliant one-handed offload that set up centre Jonathan Davies' second try.

"I was behind George when he gave the offload for Jon Davies' second try," Wales fly-half Rhys Priestland recalled. "I had to stop because I couldn't believe what I had just seen! He is a superstar of the game, and he is only 19. My first experience of George was when he started training with the Scarlets at the start of last season.

"I hadn't met him before, and I remember we were doing gym testing. This guy was just so much stronger than anyone else in the squad, and I said to him afterwards had he done much with his time off.

"He said he'd had exams, and I said were they university exams, and he said: `No, A levels!'

"I play in the same team as him all the time, and he doesn't seem to stop surprising me.

"I had heard of him when he was playing for Llandovery before he joined the Scarlets, and everyone said he was going to be a good player, but I had no idea he was so young and how good he was going to be.

"He is someone who concentrates on the basics. He tries to get over the gain-line, he runs hard and he has good support lines."

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