As 16-year-olds Owen Farrell and Ben Vernon were first choice England team-mates, both seemingly destined for rugby stardom.
Last year, while Farrell was making his Six Nations debut against Scotland at Murrayfield, Vernon was scrambling around in the mud for Tarleton in North Lancashire One nine rungs below on the rugby ladder.
Injuries to both shoulders derailed a highly-promising career with Sale Sharks and threatened to end it altogether. But Vernon is now fighting back.
An impressive first season with Fylde in National League One, two levels below the Aviva Premiership, has given the 21-year-old flanker the belief that, with an overdue slice of luck and a decent tail wind, he can still get back to where he was.
Fylde have the option of another year on his contract while he completes his university degree. But after that who knows?
"Sure I've still got ambitions in the game," he confessed. "I'd love to get back into professional rugby and pick up where I left off. So next season will be a big one for me and I'll be giving it everything."
Vernon, from Preston, Lancashire, knows it will take more than true Northern grit to recapture that lost dream. Contemporaries from the England U16 side in 2008 have progressed smoothly through the gears to hit the fast lane of Premiership rugby. Team-mates like Farrell, George Ford, Ryan Glynn and Sam Twomey have all had those extra years of top flight grooming that can be so important to a young player's development.
"Catching up isn't going to be easy," said the Fylde No 7. "I'm getting stronger and fitter playing in National One. It's been a long haul. But after all I've put myself through I'm starting to feel the confidence surging back.
"Next season will be the biggest test. I've got a lot to do if I want to make up for lost time. The Premiership is still my dream. If I could get there after all that's happened that would be brilliant. If not then I just want to get as far as I can."
Vernon, like ex-England captain Steve Borthwick a product of Hutton Grammar School in Preston, captained his county at U15 and was capped by England a year later. Under the leadership of Farrell, he played in the Four Nations Championship in France in 2008. Two years later the Sale Academy player made the England U18 squad preparing to face the mighty Australians.
It ought to have been the biggest moment of his rugby life. Instead an injury days before the game brought his world crashing down.
"It was the final training camp before we played the Aussies," he recalled. "I got a real stinger of a tackle which damaged my right shoulder and was affecting my neck. The England staff took me to one side and told me I couldn't play. I was sent me home. As brutal as that. And I never got back.
"The same happened with Sale. I was just devastated. It all just collapsed around me. I went from being on the verge of playing for England against Australia to nothing, almost overnight.
"Pretty soon afterwards the left shoulder went too. I was doing pre-season training at Fylde and again it was a tackle which did the damage.
"I was absolutely gutted. I can't explain the depths of disappointment I felt going from England to nothing, just like that. It was at that point that I honestly felt it was over for me at rugby. I knew I had to get surgery on both shoulders and see if there was any chance I could come back from it."
Vernon had 18 months out of the game while he recuperated from the operations. He admits his confidence took as big a knock as his shoulders. But, after a few tentative steps back into rugby with his local team Tarleton, he began to play regular games in North Lancashire One“ the eighth level of the pyramid.
It was during that season of rediscovery that, completely out of the blue, national scouts came calling again to offer him a place in the England Counties U20 side against Scotland. Vernon scored a first half try to give England an 11-5 half-time lead. But the Scots powered back to win 33-16.
"Pulling that England shirt on again after four years was brilliant, he said. "I also went to Twickenham last year with Lancashire in the County Championship Final. The next aim is to get in the full England Counties side and see where I go from there.
"I'm loving playing for Fylde. It's an excellent set-up, the lads are great and I'm learning an awful lot from some very experienced people. I know I've got a lot of hard work to do next season, but I'll be ready to give it both barrels."
In the meantime, once the current season ends, he plans some much-needed rest and a bit of sevens rugby with the newly-formed Red Panda team owned by former Lancashire and North of England team-mate (and owner of Talking Rugby Union) Max Ashcroft.