Last updated at 12:44, Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Deposed England winger Mark Cueto believes two fellow Cumbrian stars have what it takes to follow in his illustrious footsteps onto the international stage.

Top form: Rob Miller

Cueto’s name was conspicuous by its absence when England interim head coach Stuart Lancaster unveiled his new-look team for the Six Nations despite a stellar career which has seen the 31-year-old play at two World Cups and represent the British Lions.

But the Workington-born Sale Sharks wing believes it won’t be long before the next generation of Cumbrians are knocking on the England door.

Cueto can already see the day when his two Sharks’ team-mates Rob Miller and Will Addison carve out glittering Test careers.

Miller, from Bothel, came through the ranks at Aspatria Rugby Club and is now first-choice full-back at Sale Sharks, where he has been a key part of their Aviva Premiership revival.

The 22-year-old already has caps at Under-16, Under-18 and Under-20 levels and played at the 2010 Under-20 Junior World Championship in Japan.

Addison, 19, from King’s Meaburn, near Penrith, has made an impressive start to his professional career, scoring on his Sale debut against Gloucester last season when he came on as a replacement for 2003 World Cup winner Ben Cohen.

With Sharks once again proving a dominant force in English rugby under the leadership of Steve Diamond, Cueto, who won 54 England caps, is tipping Miller and Addison for the big-time.

He said: “It all starts with your club as you have to play well there but you also need your club to be winning games and to be up in the top half of the table.

“It doesn’t make any sense if you are in a relegation battle as we have been for the past couple of seasons. But the way the club is shaping up this season, the club will be doing everything to help promote the boys onto the international scene.

“They have just got to keep playing well. As well as James Gaskell, Henry Thomas, there are guys in the backs, such as Will Addison along with Rob Miller.

“These boys are just getting better and better every week. They are still unbelievably young so to be playing regularly at Premiership level is a massive achievement already.

“They have got to keep their feet on the ground, which I am sure they will as they are very grounded lads.

“But if they keep working hard and playing as well as they have been so far in their careers, then they will definitely get the recognition.”

Miller and Addison are the latest players off a conveyor belt of Cumbrian talent which has produced the likes of David Pears, Steven Hanley, Steve Borthwick, Phil Dowson and Cueto, who all took up the game in their home county and eventually played for England.

Cueto began his career as a junior at Netherhall Rugby Club in Maryport, before joining Sale, and he can see parallels between today’s emerging stars and his own breakthrough.

He said: “Maybe there are some echoes of when I broke through at Sale with Charlie Hodgson, Chris Jones and Richard Wigglesworth and then got called up by England.

“There was a batch of us that all came through together at the same time.”

First published at 11:27, Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk