Luke Littler is going to have another rival to contend with at the top.
The teenager was expected to be one of the stars of the show at this year’s World Cup of Darts alongside Luke Humphries as they represented five-time champions England.
But the superstar duo were left in utter shock as they lost their second-round clash against Germany 8-4.
England’s early exit flung the door open for a rival nation to snatch their mantle as world champions and it was Northern Ireland who did so in the most thrilling of fashions.
The Northern Irish pairing of Daryl Gurney and 24-year-old Josh Rock squeezed past Wales 10-9, with the victorious leg coming via a nail-biting sudden-death showdown.
Despite two-time major winner Gurney boasting far more experience, it was World Cup rookie Rock who stole the show.
It was no more evident than when he pinned 171 to leave Gurney with just 16 to win in the sudden-death leg immediately after Price scored a brilliant maximum.
Although Gurney hit his first effort at D8 north of the wire, he made no mistake with his second as he and Rock shared a teary embrace.
Having witnessed Rock’s brilliance up close and how impactful he was in a high-pressure situation, Gurney made a bold prediction about what’s in store for the 24-year-old.
“Josh has got the game,” Gurney told talkSPORT Darts.
“The sky is the limit. I think Josh is more than good enough to be in the Premier League. He’ll win a TV major soon. I think he got to a couple of quarter-finals, couldn’t get over that stage. Then this year at the UK Open, he got over that stage.
“Sometimes it’s baby steps to make progress and I think Josh is going the right way. Every year he seems to get better.
Rock gained a legion of new fans for his ice-cool throws under pressure in the finalGetty“Everybody seems to forget that this is only his third year playing on the PDC. He’s still really new to TV darts and look how well he played.
“So for me, we’ve got a superstar on our hands. The sky is the limit. He can win all the majors, he can win a world championship and he could be playing in the Premier League next year, you never know.”
Rock made it to the fourth round of the World Championship on his tournament debut in 2023 and it remains his best run at the marquee event to date.
But ‘Rocky’ has been in fine fettle this year, winning a PDC Players Championship event in Leicester as well as enjoying a run to the semi-finals of the UK Open.
The 24-year-old also has reached the semi-finals at two PDC European Tour events, proving he is finally coming into his own.
Perhaps the fact the spotlight is on teenage superstar Littler rather than Rock himself has been a factor behind his resurgence.
Rock has been tipped to become a constant rival of Littler in the not-too-distant futureGettyWhen Littler first burst onto the scene at the 2024 World Championships, two-time world champ Gary Anderson wanted to media to go easy on the teen as he claimed a similarly-harsh spotlight had ‘absolutely destroyed’ Rock.
Rock saw his fame skyrocket in his early 20s after he hit a televised nine-darter against Michael van Gerwen at the Grand Slam in November 2022.
But he struggled to maintain his success in the preceding years, reaching just one quarter-final at a PDC ranked televised event across 2023 and 2024.
Yet with a World Cup now in his trophy cabinet, Rock may now have the springboard to finally launch his career.
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