London Irish - How did they let this one slip through the net?

Interesting article in the Telegraph this morning about this guy, Lawrence Okoye. 6 foot 6 inches, 21.5 stone and claims to have run a sub 11 second 100 metres. From the article sounds like he is more than just a lump. The NFL seem pretty interested but the guy sounds made for modern rugby!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/9995974/Olympic-athlete-Lawrence-Okoye-is-set-on-making-the-switch-from-GB-discus-thrower-to-NFL-professional.html

It doesn't mean he'll be a good rugby player. Sounds like he is more suited to NFL.

Presumably because he couldn't catch or pass?

He might make a little bit more money in NFL too

Bathman_in_London wrote:Presumably because he couldn't catch or pass?

Yeah there is no way he could learn to throw a rugby ball. A discuss 68 metres yes. A rugby ball no. It's that tough.

Tom Court was a shotputter, before turning to rugby late, playing rugby in 2004 when he would have been 23/24.

So he maybe could have turned to rugby.

I sometimes suspect that Okoye embellishes his rugby record. When he first broke the GB discus record it was said he used to be in the Waspos academy, now he says he was in the LI one.

Toadfish wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:Presumably because he couldn't catch or pass?

Yeah there is no way he could learn to throw a rugby ball. A discuss 68 metres yes. A rugby ball no. It's that tough.

They're completely different. The key is throwing a ball accurately.

Didn't he go to Whitgift school and score a try in the Daily Mail cup (or did I make that up?)

Also seem to recall him saying that after the olympics he might go back to rugby. Seems like the NFL won

Kingshu wrote:Tom Court was a shotputter, before turning to rugby late, playing rugby in 2004 when he would have been 23/24.

So he maybe could have turned to rugby.

And Victor Costello threw the hammer.

He's looking to play DE/DT from what I've heard, positions in which he can use his strength and speed without needing too much in the way of football specific skills, due to american football's "Two-Platoon" system. There aren't really any positions in Rugby in which that is true.

Besides, he'll probably earn more in 1 year in the NFL than he would have in an entire career in the Jeff.

Well Dwayne Chambers proved that being a great physical specimen doesnt mean you'll be a rugby player...

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well Dwayne Chambers proved that being a great physical specimen doesnt mean you'll be a rugby player...

But Dwayne's mistake was going to actually play football, which he couldn't, and he thought his 100m speed would carry him through, which it couldn't

The average burst of sprint in the NFL is about 15 yards I think for the receiving options, and amazingly Dwayne couldn't figure out that most NFL receivers could match his 15 yard time, and would near match his 40 time too, oh and they had placyed football all their lives too.

He was a good rugby player playing alongside Elliot daly, he wasn't amazing though, as a massive winger playing at u18 level no one could stop him but at the top level he would be too slow. He may have made a good number 8 but to be honest he's too interested in himself , which he fully admits why he chose discus throwing as he likes to be a star. If he darted in rugby he may have been good, if he stayed in discus throwing he would have been very good, in NFL I have no idea but I don't think his attitude has the staying power....never believe your own hype

Yep, He may be a big lump of a man, but you need more than that to be a professional anything, much less a rubgy of NFL player, that requires more than one skillset. By this I mean, he is a good discuss thrower because he is strong and was thus coached to be throw properly and then throw far. But that is all he has to learn to become a good discuss thrower.

Team sports almost alway require a few different skillsets, a winger needs good hands, good foot speed, the ability to tackle effectively and then the other ancillary stuff that makes good wingers into great ones such as support lines, dummy running, defensive line coorinadation, ability to exploit defensive slip ups and mis matches and then the disipline in attack to when to seek contact or avoid it, when to pin the ears back and when to take the tackle and then rucking skills etc.

The above aspects really only come with 100% focus on that one sport, so i am not surprised that he did not make it if he was also doing the discuss. As for NFL, the DE/DT positions do not really require any ball handling skills, but as a result, the tackle and "hit" skills are going to be very very high, given the nature of the positions as specialist defensive positions. You cannot phone in that or fake the ability to tackle, and time the tackle and coordiante with the other guys etc.

That is why most pros have spent a lifetime playing the game and why so few poeple 'discover' a pro sport much later than their mid teens. Of course there are examples, but for every one guy who was 18 or 19 or in their 20's before playing a particular sport, there'll be 1000 guys who started at 15 or younger. And most of those guys that started "late" almost certainly played a sport with a lot of cross-over skills, and at the very least had a high level of hand/eye coordination going on prior to their "late" start.

Put it this way, I am a fat, slow ex-winger that has played the game for 6/7 years and watched it for another 10+ since. i'd trust me to do a better job in the pro ranks for a one off match (with the one caveat of a few weeks of fitness work and ball skills to blow the cobwebs off!) than guys who are "made for rugby" but havent actually been brought up playing it or a similar sport. That might sound like a massive ego trip, but I'd know what to do and when to do it, the execution would be where I'd fall down!

LondonTiger wrote:I sometimes suspect that Okoye embellishes his rugby record. When he first broke the GB discus record it was said he used to be in the Waspos academy, now he says he was in the LI one.

Bless him, the poor lad probably got confused. He played for the L.I. U19s in a 7s tournament AT Wasps training ground a few years ago. I went to watch this, as it was switched from being played at Wuss to Twyford Avenue at short notice, and was announced on the Wasps' website.

Okoye was outshone by a young lad called Marlande Yarde as I recall. Christian Wade played for Wasps.

Sarries won the tournament btw.

In a little over a week’s time, Lawrence Okoye – British discus record-holder,
Olympic finalist and gifted student with a deferred place to read law at
Oxford – will discover whether there will be another extraordinary chapter
in his eventful, 21-year-old life.

Why would he chose the Notnots?

If only he had signed for Oxford Welsh he could have done both!

He played for Whitgift school alongside Marlande Yarde (I believe they are good friends) and Elliott Daly in a team that convincingly won the Daily Mail cup. He broke the British discus record only a year after taking up the sport. It seems he changed academies from wasps to london irish in the past and decided to pursue discus over rugby because of a home olympics, which is a pretty strong draw really.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/apr/15/lawrence-okoye-nfl-draft-discus
I think he seems down to earth yet confident in himself and just wants to challenge himself. He seems to have impressed a lot of people in America with just his raw talent at any rate. I think he would have been very impressive if he had chosen to play rugby, a 10.9 second 100m time is fast for any winger in professional rugby let alone one who is his size!

I've banged on about this guy forever. Yes, he may not have made a good rugby player, but all the physical attributes were there. In England, players with that athletic ability seem to go into just about any sport before rugby, it's a big challenge for the sport when discus seems a more attractive/viable option.

Terrible shame the people like him don't stick with the sport or are given a proper run at it. And I have to say this - there are plenty of people who like to convince themselves that significant aspects of the game are hugely technical...true, but some aren't. If this guy can catch, his decent pace and ridiculous physique already put him ahead of a load of players who have 'soft hands'.

We let him slip through the net because he wasn't a good enough Rugby player. With the talent we produce, particularly in the back three, I am fairly comfortable with that decision.