Former England international makes shock move to Super Rugby

At the age of 26, Maunder was released by Exeter at the conclusion of the 2022/23 season, marking the end of his 13-year tenure with the club.

During his time at Exeter, he amassed an impressive 141 appearances. Interestingly, Maunder comes from a family with a strong scrum-half lineage, as his father Andy was a regular for the Chiefs during the amateur era. Now, his brother Sam remains as the sole representative of the family in the Chiefs' ranks.

Maunder had the opportunity to represent England once, earning his solitary cap in 2017 against Argentina in Santa Fe. As per Australian publication The Roar, he has signed a one-year contract with the Melbourne Rebels.

Ahead of the 2023 season, the Melbourne Rebels are proving to be an enticing destination for talent from the Gallagher Premiership.

Adding to their roster, the Rebels have already secured the signatures of Matt Proctor and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto from the Northampton Saints.

World-class on his day, but I don’t think any England fan will argue that the mercurial fly-half winning just 16 caps during his career can only be considered a complete disaster.

He was never able to replicate his club form on the international stage. So disappointing.

Much was made of the fact that Shaun Perry was an ex-welder when he burst into the limelight during an impressive season with Bristol, and it did make a charming rags-to-riches story.  But, let’s be honest, he never really looked accomplished in the England shirt. A poor performance against South Africa in the 2007 Rugby World Cup led to Perry being dropped from the 22 by England coach Brian Ashton. He never played again.

Gloucester stalwart Hazell had the unenviable task of filling the retired Neil Back’s shoes.  We can assume that Robinson’s thought process was, “He’s small, he’s aggressive, he’s just like Neil Back”, but unfortunately it didn’t really work out like that.  Making his international appearances exclusively through 2004-05, Hazell became known as a bit of a penalty machine.

England, who fast-tracked Burgess into their World Cup squad in defiance of logic, Bath and the player himself each shoulder varying degrees of blame for arguably the greatest cross-code flop in history. We’re not saying he was an awful player, but the whole thing was a complete disaster.

The Volcano’ stormed onto the scene for Gloucester, doing something ridiculous like scoring five tries on his debut against Leeds, before qualifying for England on residency grounds. International honours followed, with Vainikolo making his England debut against Wales in 2008. However, he failed to bring his try-scoring form to the international scene and was quickly dropped from Martin Johnston’s squad after winning five caps.