Rob has what it takes to fill Wilko’s boots
Last updated 13:24, Saturday, 22 March 2008
FOR five days, just before Christmas, young Cumbrian fly-half Robert Miller lived the dream!
The Bothel teenager went one-on-one in special re-hab sessions with England icon Johnny Wilkinson.
Like World Cup hero Wilkinson, the Cumbrian youngster is with the Newcastle Falcons and both were gearing up to play again after injury set-backs.
Miller had a shoulder problem, while Wilkinson, who seems to have been injury-ridden ever since his heroics in the 2003 World Cup, was getting over an ankle knock.
It was a great experience for Miller, who has since confided in friends and family that it was the most productive five days of his career so far.
You can’t measure how valuable those sessions would have been to Miller – the craftsman passing on at first-hand his skills to theapprentice.
And that’s a fair analogy because many good rugby union judges will tell you that Miller has what it takes to go all the way and eventually take over Wilkinson’s role in the full England set-up.
Steven Hanley (who, like Miller made his senior debut for Aspatria), Mark Cueto and Steve Borthwick have all played for England over the last few years.
David Pears, formerly of Aspatria before switching to Harlequins, also represented his country four times to add to the list of Cumbrian internationals in the last decade.
Miller, who was a fixture in the England Under-18 team last season has now earned himself a place in the next age group squad, the Under-20s.
Miller hopes to be playing in his first World Cup this summer. It’s the Under-20s who will be contesting the tournament, to be staged in Wales at the end of the current season, which is why he’s so desperate to be given an opportunity to show what he can do at the higher age level.
There were strong whispers in the north east this week that Miller might actually start tomorrow night when England take on France in the Under-20s Six Nations.
That’s a measure of how highly this precocious talent is thought of, not just round the Newcastle club where he plays for the Academy side but in the England set-up as well.
I’m told that Miller was bitterly disappointed that he wasn’t chosen in the first England Under-20s squad for the opening game against Wales.
That, mind you, despite still being a year behind most members of the squad and he will be available for that same age group next season.
You just have to talk to people who have been involved with Miller, the boy – the flourishing talent and the teenager with the rugby union world at his feet – to appreciate what a prospect he is.
Mark Richardson, the street-wise old soldier, who proudly lifted the County Championship trophy at Twickenham for Cumbria in 1997, saw him blossom with Aspatria last year.
‘Tank’ has never seen a better passer of the ball with both hands.
“Right or left, it comes the same to him. He’s just got a wonderful pair of hands for the game of rugby. I’ve seen some great ones, but none better,” was his take on the silky handling skills of the kid he first saw as a ball boy at Aspatria.
Robert’s dad, Jimmy Miller, was a player for a number of years with the Black Reds and later coached them alongside Tommy Borthwick.
Now the highly successful coach at Tynedale, Borthwick has inherited 18-year-old Miller as a season-long loan signing from the Falcons.
He also has another highly-talented young Cumbrian, Gavin Beasley who is also a Newcastle player – and a stand-off half.
“I tend to use them according to their Newcastle commitments on a Monday. Robert has played full-back, inside centre and stand-off for us this season and he’s actually our top try scorer with nine,” says Borthwick.
“He has lots of attributes but up there at the top is his extra pace.
“Particularly at the end of games when the opposition have been tiring he is able to exploit the gaps that appear. He can see the opening and just goes.”
It shouldn’t be forgotten that when we write Miller’s playing pedigree – England, Newcastle, Tynedale and Aspatria – there has to be room for Keswick School in there as well.
Alan Gray and Tim Bunting were involved in coaching the school teams but they make no claims to have shaped Miller’s international future.
Refreshingly Gray says: “We couldn’t teach him anything. All we did was show an interest in his progress and encourage him.
“He is such a modest young man, too, with no edge or big-headedness.
“Whenever I asked him to demonstrate a drill to younger lads he always came along to the sessions and happily got involved.”
It’s a-la Wilkinson isn’t it? No Flash Harry but with a focus and a commitment to his chosen sport. Exactly the sort of clean-cut, good-living young man most mothers would want their daughters to bring home.
I guess there is a minority, however, who see an attraction in the Jack the Lad, scallywags of this world who dominate the front pages as much as the back ones.
Before then, and when international commitments allow, he will be helping Tynedale towards National Two rugby.
Borthwick’s team is currently 22 points clear in National Three North with seven games left to play. But with up to five points available from each game that isn’t the unassailable lead it looks.
The Tynedale coach – now in his fourth season at the club after a decade in charge at Bower Park – believes the experiences of last season will serve his side well.
“We were top going into the last fixture but eventually had to settle for the play-offs where we lost to Westcombe Park from Kent.
“That was disappointing but I think we have learnt from that and can benefit this time round,” says Borthwick.
If Miller stays fit and can play a part in that promotion triumph it would be a perfect send-off to the summer’s Under-20s World Cup.
Then, I wonder, what will be the chances of another one-to-one week with a certain Mr Wilkinson?
I’ll keep you posted.
