Owen Lane

Owen Lane followed in the footsteps of Welsh sporting legends Sam Warburton, Gareth Bale and Geraint Thomas in being educated at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff, where he was born.

He won Wales U16 caps before moving on to Cowbridge Comprehensive, from where he was capped by Wales U18. While progressing through the academy at Cardiff Blues, he represented Wales at both U20 level and on the World Rugby Sevens Series circuit. He featured in the 2018 World Rugby U20 Championship and was also in the Wales Sevens squad for 2018-19.

Those calls followed him bursting on to the scene during the 2017/18 campaign with the Blues senior side. He marked his Guinness PRO14 debut for Wales’ capital region with a try against Connacht on 24 November, 2017, in a 36-30 success at the Arms Park. Equally at home on the wing and at centre, he went on to score six times for the Blues in that campaign and he helped his team to lift the European Rugby Challenge Cup in 2018. He started the final against Gloucester in Bilbao, but was forced off in the first half due to an elbow injury.

By that stage Lane had signed his first professional deal with the Blues. He continued his fine form in the 2018/19 campaign and scooped the ‘Player of the Season’ prize at the Blues’ end-of-season awards after racking up 11 tries in 18 games. He was also nominated as the Energia Next-Gen Star of the Season at the PRO14 awards.

Injury meant he was unavailable for selection for the 2019 6 Nations, but he was called into the Wales Squad for the first time in May, 2019, as one of two uncapped players in a training squad of 42 for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. The other uncapped player was his house mate, Rhys Carre.