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Thretton Palamo felt for the 100-plus athletes attending April's first-ever National Rugby Football League combine in Minneapolis. Many of them, like the onetime Utah defensive end, were former football players. Few of them were at home on a rugby pitch.

Palamo knows that feeling well — except that, for him, the confusion came with football.

Four years ago, Palamo put on hold a rugby career that began auspiciously when he became the youngest player to appear in the Rugby World Cup, having just turned 19 when the USA Eagles took on eventual champions South Africa in Montpellier, France, in September 2007.

But when he finished as a Ute in 2013 with 24 tackles, a half-sack and a forced fumble, rugby was waiting.

"Secretly, I was hoping football wouldn't work out," said USA head coach Mike Tolkin.

Now 26, Palamo earned a trial contract as inside center for London's Saracens. In November, he represented his country against Fiji and Tonga alongside former Utah left tackle John Cullen and U. rugby standout Mate Moeakiola. And he's just getting started, said Blake Burdette, who first persuaded Palamo to attend the U.

Burdette, himself a former Utah tight end and rugby teammate of Utah safeties coach Morgan Scalley at powerhouse Highland High in 1997-98, befriended Palamo while on the USA team in 2007.

It was Burdette who persuaded Palamo to attended the U. after a stint with French club Biarritz, and Burdette who invited Scalley and Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham to watch Palamo play against Wyoming.

Previously, the soft-spoken freshman had been "just having fun," Burdette said, but "it was like he flipped a switch. He was so unstoppable."

Whittingham told him Palamo would be one of his top five athletes, right away, Burdette said.

That mirrors the realization international rugby coaches are having about college football players. Some of them are as big, as strong and as fast as anybody in rugby. It can get lost in translation, though.

While onetime Ashland University running back Carlin Isles has become a U.S. fixture at wing, former Nebraska and Green Bay Packers running back Ahman Green struggled in his attempt to make USA's sevens team.

Cullen, who earned his first USA appearance in November against Romania, is another aspiring convert.

The 24-year-old played rugby in high school during the offseason, and when he wasn't selected in the 2012 NFL Draft and was later released by the San Diego Chargers, he told his agent he didn't want to play in Canada or the Arena Football League.

Instead, he returned to school to finish his degree and called Burdette to see about a spot on the U.'s club team.

"He was a lineman," Burdette said. "He had never run with the ball, really. He just wanted to run with the ball and make big hits, and we gave him an opportunity to do that."

His athleticism made it "a pretty easy transition," Cullen said. But Burdette told him succeeding at the next level was going to require a serious investment.

That's involved tending bar in his downtime from training with the Seattle Saracens, at the highest level of U.S. club rugby.

Cullen is listed at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds and plays number 8 ­— generally a large forward capable of tackling, pushing at the back of scrums and plowing ahead for tough yards in attack.

"For John, it's been a slow, steady work in progress," Tolkin said. "He had a lot of football traits to him that we needed to get rid of," but he has been able to leapfrog veterans to join the USA roster.

Top players for Palamo's Saracens, at the highest domestic level of rugby in England, can earn around $500,000 per year, Tolkin said.

Cullen hopes to make a living playing rugby, but there are hoops to jump through. A foreign player must first appear for his national team (check), and they must also acquire a working visa and fight for spots in international leagues that limit the number of foreigners.

Moeakiola, 36, is another former Ute employed abroad. Tolkin describes the Castanet prop affectionately as "an old salty dog" who "knows his way around the field."

During the Eagles' November tour, he earned a start against the vaunted New Zealand All-Blacks at Soldier Field before 61,500 fans.

Palamo is still shedding some rust and getting used to the aerobic demands of rugby — "There's no first down, second down," he said. "The game just keeps going."

But he hopes to again represent USA at the Rugby World Cup this September in England.

And, Cullen, Palamo's roommate in November, urges Utah fans to catch him in action.

"Watch the beast in his natural habitat."

Twitter: @matthew_piper —

Who's your No. 1 rugby draft pick?

The Tribune asked which NFL player these rugby players and coaches would choose if they could reverse time and develop skills with a different variety of prolate spheroid.

USA number 8 John Cullen • Baltimore nose tackle Haloti Ngata, because of his incredible power and his rugby background at Utah's Highland High.

USA head coach Mike Tolkin • Former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders and former New York Giants outside linebacker Lawrence Taylor — although he also liked Cullen's Ngata pick.

USA inside center Thretton Palamo • Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Star Lotulelei and New York Jets outside linebacker Trevor Reilly, who was "always in my ear" about how he'd excel at rugby."

Olympus High coach and former Eagle Blake Burdette • "I couldn't even imagine if [Houston Texans defensive end] J.J. Watt played No. 8, or if [Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker] Terrell Suggs played a prop." —

U. of U. club season

Utah's first club rugby match of the season is Saturday, at St. Mary's. The Utes will play BYU in St. George on Jan. 24 and open their Salt Lake City slate against St. Mary's (again) on March 13.