What Happened Next? Harry Wilson and the pathway from the Championship to the Premiership

Two years ago, Talking Rugby Union reported on Harry Wilson leaving Doncaster Knights for Saracens. It looked like a deserved opportunity for one of the Championship’s outstanding forwards. Two seasons, 28 Saracens appearances and another Premiership move later, perhaps Wilson’s story tells us something much bigger about the value of the pathway below English rugby’s top flight.

In July 2024, Talking Rugby Union reported that Harry Wilson was preparing to make one of the biggest jumps in English club rugby, leaving Doncaster Knights and the Championship to join Saracens.

From the TRU archive: Saracens sign Harry Wilson from Doncaster Knights — read the original July 2024 story

Saracens had Maro Itoje, Nick Isiekwe and a squad packed with established Premiership and international players. Wilson, meanwhile, was 27 and had spent recent seasons working his way through Hartpury, London Scottish, Ampthill and Doncaster.

But there was one statistic which perhaps should have told us something and that was, Wilson had played every minute of Doncaster’s 2023/24 Championship campaign.

Not most of it. Every minute. He scored four tries, was selected in the Championship Dream Team and had done enough for one of England’s most successful clubs to decide there was a Premiership player waiting to be uncovered.

So, two years later, what happened next?

From Castle Park to the Champions Cup

There can sometimes be an assumption when a player moves from the Championship to one of the Premiership’s biggest clubs that he is being recruited primarily to provide squad depth.

Wilson did considerably more than that, within three months of arriving at Saracens, he had made both his Premiership and Champions Cup debuts and May 2025, Saracens had seen enough to offer him another contract, describing his first season in North London as a breakthrough campaign. (Saracens)

It was confirmation that the qualities evident at Doncaster translated to the highest levels of the English club game.

There were difficult moments as well; a red card against Exeter for a high tackle in January 2025 brought a suspension, but Wilson recovered from that setback and continued to establish himself within the Saracens environment. Wilson captained Saracens in the PREM Rugby Cup and also became involved with coaching Saracens Women and by the time Saracens announced in February this year that he would be leaving, the club credited him with 28 senior appearances. (Saracens)

For someone recruited from the Championship at 27, into one of the most competitive forward groups in the country, that represents a significant achievement.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the story was still to come.

Someone had been watching

When Exeter Chiefs announced Wilson’s signing in February, Rob Baxter revealed something which should resonate throughout the Championship and National League Rugby and that was Exeter had noticed Wilson before Saracens did. Baxter explained that Chiefs had looked at him during his Doncaster days and regarded him as one of the outstanding back-five forwards in the Championship.

At that particular moment, a move to Exeter wasn’t right; but Baxter kept watching. He watched Wilson make the transition to Saracens. He watched him compete in the Premiership. And he watched him demonstrate that the qualities which had made him stand out at Castle Park could survive at a higher level. (Exeter Chiefs)

Two years later, Exeter came back for him and that might be the most important part of Harry Wilson’s story.

Someone was watching.

Why Wilson’s journey matters

At Talking Rugby Union, we spend a lot of time looking below the top tier of the professional game.

BUCS Super Rugby.

The Championship.

National League Rugby.

They aren’t separate rugby worlds. At their best, they are connected parts of the same pathway; Wilson demonstrates that rather neatly. He captained Hartpury University to BUCS Super Rugby success. He played Championship rugby with London Scottish and Ampthill. He became an ever-present at Doncaster. Then came Saracens and now Exeter.

It isn’t the conventional academy-to-Premiership conveyor belt and perhaps that is precisely why it matters.

Professional rugby can become understandably obsessed with identifying talent young. Academy systems seek the next international before he has finished school. Age-grade rugby identifies prospects earlier and earlier but players don’t all develop at the same speed. Wilson’s career is an example of what can happen when that route remains open.

More than a development league

It also challenges how we sometimes describe the Championship; the second tier is regularly discussed in terms of what it costs, how it should be funded and what relationship it should have with the Premiership.

Those are legitimate debates but perhaps we should also ask what the Championship produces.

Wilson arrived at Saracens not as an inexperienced prospect requiring several seasons of development, but as a hardened senior rugby player having played every minute of a Championship season, that matters.

Travelling around the country, playing in difficult conditions, learning how to win tight matches and dealing with the physical demands of senior rugby matters.

The Championship had prepared him, then Saracens refined him.

And Exeter have now decided that player can help them. Baxter’s assessment is revealing. He highlighted Wilson’s physicality, his ability to cover second and back row and the positive contributions he made at Saracens.

Exeter weren’t signing potential from Doncaster anymore.

They were signing a proven Premiership forward whose foundations had been built lower down the pyramid. (Exeter Chiefs)

A new chapter at Sandy Park

Wilson moved to Devon in July and is now immersed in an Exeter pre-season which has a formidable reputation of its own. Speaking in August, he described what he believes he can bring to Chiefs: physicality, abrasiveness, leadership and game understanding.

He also acknowledged that moving from Saracens to Exeter isn’t exactly a well-trodden path.

That makes this latest chapter particularly intriguing.

Wilson is still only 29.

This isn’t a veteran dropping down the leagues for the final stage of his career. He is moving between two major Premiership clubs at an age when a forward should still have plenty ahead of him.

And there was another small milestone this weekend.

When Exeter named a 35-player group for their opening pre-season fixture against Scarlets at Sandy Park, Harry Wilson was in the starting XV.

Another new shirt.

Another opportunity. (Exeter Chiefs)

What happened next?

When TRU reported Wilson’s move from Doncaster in July 2024, there could be no guarantee how it would work out.

The jump was considerable.

But we now have our answer.

He made his Premiership debut.

He played European rugby.

He captained Saracens in cup competition.

He earned another contract.

He made 28 senior appearances for one of England’s leading clubs.

And when he decided to leave, another Premiership club was waiting.

There is a tendency in sport to tell pathways retrospectively, as though the destination was always inevitable.

Harry Wilson’s wasn’t.

Hartpury to London Scottish.

London Scottish to Ampthill.

Ampthill to Doncaster.

Doncaster to Saracens.

Saracens to Exeter.

It is a career built one level, one opportunity and one performance at a time.

And maybe that is why this particular What Happened Next? matters, because somewhere in BUCS Super Rugby, the Championship or National League Rugby today there will be another 23, 24, 25 or 26-year-old whose conventional pathway into the Premiership appears to have passed.

Wilson’s story suggests it hasn’t necessarily passed at all.

Providing, of course, that somebody is still watching.