{"id":574572,"date":"2026-03-30T17:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574572\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:12:14","slug":"england-hopeful-caluori-receives-be-careful-message-from-offiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574572\/","title":{"rendered":"England hopeful Caluori receives &#8216;be careful&#8217; message from Offiah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Offiah says Noah Caluori reminds him of himself in his early days and has urged the teenager to look at the bigger picture and focus on building consistency as he awaits his next opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year old is leading try scorer in the Gallagher Prem with 12 in seven appearances since his debut in September. In that same period he has played for England at U20 and A level and trained with the senior team.<\/p>\n<p>But he has not appeared for his club <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/team\/saracens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saracens<\/a> since January and on Saturday, instead of starring in front of 45,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, was farmed out to Ampthill, where a 1,104 crowd watched the Champ side beat Richmond.<\/p>\n<p>Wasting Caluori?<\/p>\n<p>Under the headline \u2018Why are misfiring Saracens wasting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tag\/noah-caluori\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Caluori<\/a>\u2018s talents at Ampthill?\u2019 former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/team\/england\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> star turned Times columnist Stuart Barnes questioned Saracens\u2019 decision to \u201cerr on the side of patience\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are not too many players in England with that point of difference to their game,\u201d he wrote. \u201cDon\u2019t waste them in the second tier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saracens boss Mark McCall would doubtless answer that the teen sensation with the incredible aerial game is progressing nicely under his measured stewardship.<\/p>\n<p>Others counter that a try on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tournament\/premiership\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Prem<\/a> debut in September, five on his first league start in October and one in both his maiden England A and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tournament\/rugby-champions-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investec Champions Cup<\/a> appearances in November and December suggest his time is now.<\/p>\n<p>Sarries lie sixth in the Prem, 12 points off the top four with only six rounds to go. Since the league resumed after the Six Nations, the six-time English champions have lost both games and been outscored 12 tries to four.<\/p>\n<p>Offiah lost patience with rugby union after scoring freely for Rosslyn Park in the code\u2019s amateur days and not getting a look-in with England. At the age of 21 he switched to league and became a 501-try legend.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/whos-hot-and-whos-not-saints-box-clever-with-henry-pollock-minnows-lighting-up-urc-and-geoff-parling-turns-the-air-blue\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: Saints \u2018box clever\u2019 with Henry Pollock, \u2018minnows lighting up\u2019 URC and Geoff Parling \u2018turns the air blue\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/prem-rugby-team-of-the-week-england-bolters-hard-to-ignore-after-latest-blockbuster-as-henry-pollock-shushes-critics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PREM Rugby Team of the Week: England bolters \u2018hard to ignore\u2019 after latest blockbuster as Henry Pollock \u2018shushes\u2019 critics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For all that, his message to Caluori, whose exploits have made him an internet sensation, is to bide his time as career longevity is not built on showreel moments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNoah reminds me of myself in my Rosslyn Park days, absolutely he does,\u201d says Offiah. \u201cI love people who express themselves and are themselves, because that was me, unapologetically so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I think he can go all the way to the top, absolutely I do. But the internet can be a bad thing as well as a good thing. My message to Noah is just be careful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember seeing Tyrese Johnson-Fisher almost break the internet when he scored four ridiculous tries in a school match for Oakham as a 15-year old. The video went viral, got 30 million views or something like that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe went on to make one professional appearance [for Bristol] and is no longer in the game. So you see the way you build a career is through consistency, not by being a highlight; you know, fame for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what you must be careful of. You\u2019ve got to construct a solid career with the fundamentals and the foundations that are built over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=planetrugby.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n<p>Offiah adds: \u201cMy son Tyler [who plays for Bath and England U20s] jokes about my try at Wembley [the length-of-the-field score for Wigan against Leeds in the 1994 Challenge Cup final). He goes, \u2018Dad, you only scored one try 30 years ago, get over it!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tell him, it\u2019s not that one try, it\u2019s the 500 it stands on. If you\u2019re going to become known as a try scorer it\u2019s like being a gunslinger in the West. Be careful. Because everyone\u2019s going to come after you.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to consistently be the fastest. You have to consistently score tries, like Chris Ashton did, and over time. That reputation is is not earned just from one or two days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sprint training<\/p>\n<p>Offiah tells how, before switching to league, he spent weeks at an athletics club training with sprinters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWidnes gave me \u00a31,000 so I could give up my summer job and spend that time in the gym and at the track,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBelieve me, training with sprinters is different level and it meant when I got to Widnes I was winning all the sprints, people were going \u2018wow, who is this guy?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI scored a hat-trick in games over 50 times, you know what I mean? That\u2019s the consistency you need.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all right being a highlight but what I\u2019d say to Noah is just work on your fundamentals. If you build things slowly over time, it\u2019s going to last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/saracens-v-northampton-winners-and-losers-as-bet-the-house-style-ultimately-pays-off-to-ruin-resilient-arsenal-fans-night-at-spurs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Saracens v Northampton: Winners and losers as \u2018bet the house\u2019 style ultimately pays off to ruin \u2018resilient\u2019 Arsenal fan\u2019s night at Spurs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Offiah says Noah Caluori reminds him of himself in his early days and has urged the teenager&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1208,818,1182,44,281956,20248,760,39279,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-574572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-internationals","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-noah-caluori","15":"tag-premiership","16":"tag-rugby","17":"tag-saracens","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}