The joint top try-scorer in the Gallagher PREM is already a social media superstar – and now he’s in Steve Borthwick’s squad for the Nations Championship, set to make a senior debut against Fiji
Noah Caluori is your kid’s favourite rugby player. Don’t believe us, ask them. Better yet, download TikTok or Instagram and scroll through rugby content.
You’ll soon stumble across a barrage of pirated highlight reels compiled from the eight or so months since Caluori made his senior debut for Saracens against Newcastle Red Bulls last autumn.
Soundtracked by whatever song was trending on the app at the time of posting, these ‘comp edits’ have thousands of likes and the comments are filled with teenagers spamming fire emojis or saying things like “coldddd” and “starboy”.
Scroll for long enough and you will even end up finding Caluori’s own TikTok page, a chronological history of his insane rise from schoolboy to potential England World Cup bolter in under a season.
In the comments, you will also notice Caluori interacting with said fans, many of whom are showing off selfies they managed to nab with the winger at the weekend’s game, thanking them for their support. An alien concept to traditional fans of the game but he is not for us.
This weekend, the teenager is set to make his England debut off the bench against Fiji in the Nations Championship and is being considered as one of the bright hopes for the country’s rugby future.
Caluori is a face for the next generation of rugby fans and better still, he knows it.
Keeping it showreel
“I’m embracing the attention. When I see edits of me, I think they’re really cool and I’m truly grateful someone is making them,” Caluori tells Rugby World.
“It’s another way of getting young people from different backgrounds into the sport of rugby. Young people see these edits of rugby players at their best and think this is cool and it makes them want to play this sport.
Caluori was named player of the match after his five-try haul against Sale Sharks in April (David Rogers/Getty Images)
“Rugby is exciting, it’s so exciting. There are so many moments in the game that catch an eye, and that even people outside of rugby would realise is cool, that don’t get shown.
“We could bring so much more light onto that. I know friends who aren’t rugby people seeing these types of TikToks and wanting to watch rugby now. It’s not just me.
“It’s also Henry Pollock, it’s Antoine Dupont, they get thousands of views from people who are not engaged in the sport traditionally, which means more people are going to start watching our games.”
Star quality
‘Personality’ is the current buzzword of rugby. If the million dollar question is how do we get new people watching rugby so that it doesn’t fade into obscurity, those in positions of round-table power will inevitably have the answer down as personality. If we can just show off the players’ personalities better, get them making TikToks after games, we will all be okay.
Yet the cult of personality in sport in this sense, in almost all regards, is a myth. Look across the sporting landscape at the most beloved athletes in the world right now, especially those outside the USA, and you will realise they seldom transcend culture because of electric online personas.
Lionel Messi is adored because he’s a genius with a football. Virat Kohli is treated like a god because he smashes bowlers for six and stares them down as he does it. Neither make TikToks or are seen as ‘wacky’.
Had social media existed in 1995, what we see today with the likes of Caluori and Pollock would have happened to the great Jonah Lomu. When he ran over Mike Catt, that would have been clipped up and reposted millions of times.
New generation
The likes of Pollock and Caluori are becoming the darlings of the Gen Z online public beyond your traditional rugby fan and the catch is that, like Kohli and Messi, it really has nothing to do with their off-field personalities at all – it should be stated that both of them are incredibly polite and affable young men.
It is purely because they have the ability to do extraordinary things on the pitch which can be watched over and over again.
Pollock can run faster than most backs and smash people twice his size in the tackle and Caluori can jump so high he can almost reach the moon. Sure, the former has a nose for where the camera may be at a stop in play and the latter is recreating Chris Ashton’s infamous swandive, but they are hardly Conor McGregor. It makes the faux outrage of some in the rugby landscape about the conduct of this new generation baffling.
Shouldn’t we be celebrating these freakish young men for their undeniable ability on the field? And shouldn’t their unbridled confidence to do it time and time again be encouraged? Caluori thinks so.
Caluori’s prodigious leaps are already the stuff of legend (David Rogers/Getty Images)
In confidence
“I’m inspired by the basketball player Anthony Edwards,” Caluori admits. “I don’t consistently follow him but I love seeing interviews of him and then clips of him backing up his words on the court. Him claiming that he could beat Michael Jordan one-v-one in an interview and then throwing the ball against the glass and dunking the very next game.
“These things are really cool and I feel like rugby needs characters like that. I drifted away from basketball but it was characters like Edwards that got me back into it. I see all these cool edits of players tearing it up.
“On the pitch I’m a confident person. I won’t shy away from things. Trust me, the moment I seem like I’m getting a bit big-headed, I get brought back down to earth.
“I also think there is a good gap between confidence and being egotistical. Others show confidence in different ways. Henry Pollock is confident but Owen Farrell is confident too. I’m confident but we all show it in our own way. It’s not ego. Henry became a British & Irish Lion, so he’s clearly backing his confidence up.
“Some in the public will try and simmer you down straight away but I love players who voice their ambitions. It adds character to the game, rather than just being grateful for the opportunity. I like when people give their proper opinion and feeling for people to see, it’s more captivating. It makes you more interesting.”
Squad goals
And Caluori is no stranger to voicing what he wants. Still a teenager with fewer than 10 starts in the Gallagher PREM, his eyes are firmly set on Steve Borthwick’s England.
Five tries at home to Sale was where most first had Caluori appear on the radar, his incredible ability under the high ball making most stop in their tracks.
He then spent time with England last autumn before turning out for England A against New Zealand and Spain, scoring the winner against the latter. Another brace against Exeter and four tries against Newcastle had some tipping him for this year’s Six Nations.
Caluori had a try disallowed playing for an England XV in the the uncapped international against France in June 2026 (Franco Arland – RFU/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)
Instead, he played for the U20 side and was even sent back on loan to Champ side Ampthill by Saracens in March, which could suggest a clipping of the young winger’s wings. Another five tries away to Sale put pause to that, and he’s been rewarded with a place in Borthwick’s squad for July’s Nations Championship fixtures.
He also started for the England XV in June’s uncapped international against France, setting up a couple of tries and having one of his own disallowed.
This weekend, he will make his senior debut against Fiji.
“In school, I wrote all my goals on a whiteboard above my bed. School rugby, academy rugby and more, all written out so that I could tick them off through the season,” he says. “I still do that on a notepad at home. When goals are accomplished, they get ticked off. If a new goal comes to me, it gets written down. Goal-setting is huge for me.
“I’m not scared to make my goals known. I feel like if you voice it, it’s more likely to happen. I wouldn’t say I actively manifest but if someone asks me what my goals are, I’m not going to shy away from it. I have no problem telling people what I want to do. It works for me, I feel like I’m actively seeking out achieving that goal.”
Noah Caluori’s arc
So what are your goals, Noah?
“Coming into Year 13 at school, my goal was to play for England U20s in the Junior World Cup. After that, my goal was to play for England A by the end of this current season. That came earlier than expected but I won’t complain. My goal since being at school has always been to play at the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
“I treat every single opportunity in the exact same way, whether that’s playing in the Champ or potentially earning a first England cap. Hopefully if I prepare for each moment in the same way, you will get the same positive outcome with every opportunity. I think that will help me remain mentally focused for all of the ups and downs I will have throughout my career. That will be unavoidable.
“I think that also allows me to enjoy every moment, everything. I enjoyed playing for Ampthill in the Champ just like I did playing for Saracens in the PREM against Sale Sharks a week later or playing for England A and the U20s.”
Caluori finished the 2025-26 season as the joint top try-scorer in the PREM, with only Tommy Freeman (one of his rivals for a spot on England’s wings) matching his 18 touchdowns. That’s in addition to three tries in two games in the Champ and the score he bagged for England A last autumn.
There is an air of inevitability when it comes to Caluori that when given opportunities, he is going to take them. And when he does, your kids will be watching it all unfold on TikTok, we assure you.
Download the digital edition of Rugby World straight to your tablet or subscribe to the print edition to get the magazine delivered to your door.