{"id":389368,"date":"2026-04-09T06:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389368\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:43:15","slug":"ulster-sign-outhalf-jamie-benson-from-harlequins-on-two-year-deal-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389368\/","title":{"rendered":"Ulster sign outhalf Jamie Benson from Harlequins on two-year deal \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ulster-rugby\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ulster-rugby\/\">Ulster<\/a> have signed Irish-qualified outhalf Jamie Benson on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The 23-year-old will leave Premiership side Harlequins at the end of the season to join the northern province during the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A utility back who can also cover centre and fullback, Benson came through the Quins Academy, making his senior debut for the club as a 19-year-old against Northampton Saints in November 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A former Cambridge University student, Benson qualifies for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ireland-rugby\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ireland-rugby\/\">Ireland<\/a> through family in Belfast. He represented England at under-18 and under-20 level and was included in the wider England A squad earlier this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt feels like a fantastic time to be joining Ulster Rugby,\u201d said Benson of the move. \u201cThe team are playing an entertaining brand of rugby, which I am excited to be a part of.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI have strong family connections to the province through my mum, who grew up in Belfast, and I\u2019m looking forward to getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ulster Rugby general manager Rory Best added: \u201cWe are delighted to be signing a player of Jamie\u2019s quality as we build our squad ahead of next season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cHe has shown a lot of potential for Harlequins, performing well when given the opportunity and making an impact at PREM level and in the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cJamie brings quality and competition to our fly-half depth, and has that added strength of bringing versatility to the backline at inside centre or full-back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAt 23 years old, he joins us with his best years ahead of him and we can\u2019t wait to welcome him to Ulster this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulster have signed Irish-qualified outhalf Jamie Benson on a two-year deal. The 23-year-old will leave Premiership side Harlequins&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112,31398],"class_list":["post-389368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-ulster-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}