{"id":199086,"date":"2025-10-14T09:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199086\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:33:07","slug":"five-years-on-the-mixed-fortunes-of-sir-ian-mcgeechans-wonderkids-page-4-of-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199086\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Years On: The Mixed Fortunes of Sir Ian McGeechan\u2019s Wonderkids &#8211; Page 4 of 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>9. Luke Jacobson, New Zealand<\/p>\n<p>McGeechan\u2019s 2020 prediction:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not be surprised to see Jacobson in the All Blacks\u2019 back row come the 2023 World Cup in France.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What happened next:<br \/>Jacobson became a\u00a0regular All Black, featuring in the\u00a02023 World Cup, and remains a reliable figure for the\u00a0Chiefs, anchoring New Zealand\u2019s back row.<\/p>\n<p>10. Jordan Petaia, Australia<\/p>\n<p>McGeechan\u2019s 2020 prediction:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving watched Petaia playing for the Queensland Reds, I was struck by how big and powerful he was and how natural he looked with ball in hand. Really good feet as well. Can run over you or around you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What happened next:<br \/>Petaia became a key player for the\u00a0Wallabies, playing both centre and wing. In\u00a0late 2024, he left rugby to pursue an\u00a0NFL career\u00a0via the\u00a0International Player Pathway, signing with the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers\u00a0in April 2025. However, he was\u00a0waived\/injured\u00a0in August 2025 before the season began.<br \/>He has since\u00a0returned to rugby, signing a one-year deal with French Top 14 club\u00a0USA Perpignan\u00a0in September 2025, keeping him in contention for future Wallabies selection and the\u00a02027 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>EDITORS PICKS:<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9. Luke Jacobson, New Zealand McGeechan\u2019s 2020 prediction: \u201cDo not be surprised to see Jacobson in the All&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-199086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}