{"id":668204,"date":"2026-05-13T12:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668204\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:42:11","slug":"rugbys-jamie-vardy-five-players-who-rose-through-the-ranks-to-play-at-the-highest-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668204\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby’s Jamie Vardy: Five players who rose through the ranks to play at the highest level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

With Netflix\u2019s Jamie Vardy documentary piquing interest among the masses, we decided to come up with a list of rugby players who have also risen from the depths of club rugby to make it in the professional game.<\/p>\n

Here are five players who rose through the ranks to play at the highest level:<\/p>\n

AJ MacGinty<\/p>\n

Would arguably have fought for the Ireland<\/a> number 10 shirt alongside Johnny Sexton if he had gone down the traditional Leinster academy route.<\/p>\n

Instead, after playing for Blackrock College in County Dublin, he moved to New York, USA, where he played for New York Athletic Club RFC. After a brief stint in the Big Apple, he worked his way through the college rugby system with Life Running Eagles in Georgia.<\/p>\n

It was while playing at university that he was picked for international duty on residential grounds, making three starts at the 2015 World Cup.<\/p>\n

It was after this that then-head coach Pat Lam would sign him for professional side Connacht, before making a long-term move to Sale Sharks. Lam would later re-sign MacGinty for Bristol Bears, where he has once again firmly established himself as the number one pick.<\/p>\n

Since his debut, MacGinty has established himself as one of the most successful players to have ever played for the USA.<\/p>\n

Dylan Maart<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old wing made an extremely late surge into professional rugby, still playing local club level in his mid-20s.<\/p>\n

After making it at provincial level with Boland and Griquas, he impressed enough to secure a loan to the Stormers<\/a> in 2025, playing a handful of times.<\/p>\n

For the time being, he\u2019s back at Griquas after his Stormers stint ended, but he has recently signed a deal to join the Bulls from next season, which\u00a0will mark just three years since turning professional and winning the Currie Cup First Division.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Levani Botia<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s now made over 200 appearances for La Rochelle, in his mid-20s he was still playing provincial rugby for Namosi in Fiji. During that time, he was a regular member of the Fiji national 7s and 15s teams but had yet to play in a top-level elite division.<\/p>\n

It was only after being called\u00a0into the Top 14 as a medical joker that he eventually became a fully-fledged professional. Since then, he\u2019s appeared at three World Cups, won two European trophies and a domestic title.<\/p>\n

The South African left \u2018shocked\u2019 when a Welsh club \u2018showed interest\u2019 and \u2018bit of a road block\u2019 he encountered this season<\/a><\/p>\n

Theo McFarland<\/p>\n

He only started taking rugby seriously in 2019 when he was approached by ex-international Brian Lima while playing in Samoa. Prior to that, he had represented Moamoa Roosters Rugby Club, Moorabbin Rugby Club and the Savai\u2019i Vikings, while also playing for the Samoa men\u2019s national basketball team.<\/p>\n

After switching his focus to rugby, McFarland trained with the Samoa 7s side before signing for Manuma Samoa. Despite limited action for the club due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the two-metre tall back row was signed by former English champions Saracens and subsequently went on to achieve international honours.<\/p>\n

Semesa Rokoduguni<\/p>\n

A Lance Corporal in the British Army, Rokoduguni made his professional debut at the age of 25 after impressing for many years in the lower levels. At one stage, he was playing for the eighth-tier side, Lytchett Minster RFC, as well as German side DRC Hannover.<\/p>\n

After impressing at Twickenham for the Army Rugby Union first XV, he spent three weeks on trial at both Newcastle and Bath \u2013 before the South-West club decided to sign him permanently.<\/p>\n

After an incredible tenure at Bath, Roko spent time in France with US Montauban, before moving to CHAMP side, Doncaster Knights.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Rugby transfers: Italian prospect switches to Prem, Harlequins coach moves home and ex-Springbok gets Irish grassroots job<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Netflix\u2019s Jamie Vardy documentary piquing interest among the masses, we decided to come up with a list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,17345,36467,36177,179194,1208,1379,3739,818,1182,44,760,176848,5993,39279,85,134440],"class_list":["post-668204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bath","tag-bristol","tag-bulls","tag-connacht","tag-england","tag-features","tag-fiji","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sale-sharks","tag-samoa","tag-saracens","tag-sports","tag-stormers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668204","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=668204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}