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Getting to Know: England U20s lock Junior Kpoku

Junior Kpoku celebrates an England U20s try against Ireland in March (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

One of the highlights so far in Embedded, the RugbyPass TV behind-the-scenes series on the England team at the World Rugby U20 Championship, has been Junior Kpoku taking a call in a Cape Town barber shop from Siya Kolisi, the doble-winning Springboks Rugby World Cup captain.

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Kpoku was given a dice roll as an in-camp forfeit and rolling a six meant dying his hair or getting a buzz. The upside was that while in the chair at the barbers, Kolisi, his Racing 92 teammate, checked in on him.

The 18-year-old teenage giant joined the Parisians last autumn from Exeter Chiefs and aside from going on to make a Top 14 debut in February, he has also been busy keeping his hand in with the England age-grade set-up and is looking to add a Championship title in South Africa to the Six Nations glory that was clinched in March.

Mark Mapletoft’s side are currently two wins from two in Pool C and ahead of facing the Junior Boks in Athlone on Tuesday, Kpoku tackled the RugbyPass Getting to Know Q&A:

THE BASICS
Born: 10 September, 2005;
Joined England age-grade: Age 17 last year;
Club: Racing 92;
Position: Second row;
Height: 6ft 7;
Weight: 121kgs;
Boots: Adidas, don’t know what they are called;
Gumshield: The England rugby ones;
Headgear: No.
School: Finborough School.

RATE YOURSELF (out of 100)
Pace: 70;
Passing: 85;
Tackling: 90. 

THE PAST
My favourite England player of all time is… I like Maro (Itoje);

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Favourite try I have ever scored is… Last year U18, England against South Africa;

A rugby memory that makes me smile is… Signing my first professional contract at Exeter Chiefs;

The moment I realised I could make it is… Making my debut for Exeter against Bristol;

One piece of advice I would give to my younger self is… Work much harder;

My best subject in school was… PE;

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The first player who made me fall in love with rugby is… My brothers, both of them;

Growing up, my position was… Always lock;

The coach who has most impacted my game is… Dave Roberts, who invited me to London Skolars.

THE PRESENT
My best attributes on the field are… My energy, my tackling and my hunger;

One thing I’m doing to improve my education is… I’m going to start uni next year, doing sports science in Paris;

My favourite current England player is… Maro (Itoje);

My favourite YouTuber is… No, not really;

My hardest working teammate is… Ben Redshaw;

My most skilful teammate is… Henry Pollock;

My favourite training drill is… Race north, a little raining drill we do with Haydn (Thomas) where we set, then we fold around and just fly. It’s a straight run;

My favourite music artist is… Central Cee.

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THE FUTURE
A player who could go all the way is… Ben Redshaw;

If I could play with anyone, I would like to play with… That’s a hard one, a hard one. Owen Farrell in the England shirt;

I will be happy with my career if I… Start playing more first-team games next year;

If I could play in any other country, I would play in… Not really. Just France;

One thing I want to add to my game is… How many involvements I can get in a game, that could be in tackling, rucking, carrying, whatever.

One person I want to meet is… Michael B Jordan;

One trophy I would love to win is… The World Cup.

  • Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live coverage of matches from the 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship in countries that don’t have an exclusive local host broadcaster deal

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J
JW 15 minutes ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

111 Go to comments
T
Tom 1 hour ago
No definites, but which Wales players could still make Lions squad?

Williams, Faletau, Lake, Morgan are the only ones who have a chance. None of them are guaranteed but I'd imagine they'll pick Williams and Morgan who could get in on merit and will likely be favoured for inclusivity.


Williams is fighting it out with Ben White for 3rd slot behind JGP and Mitchell.

Morgan is up against JVDF, Earl, Curry, Curry, Willis for 4 flanker slots. Morgan is a fantastic player but a huge call to leave any of those boys at home given how much Wales struggled at the breakdown against England. He's by no means solely responsible for that but it will be fresh in the minds of the selectors. Given the amount of hybrid players emerging and the inclination for a 6-2 split, they may be able to find room for a 5th flanker in the squad. In which case may be Ben Curry who misses out or Willis might be excluded given we have such depth in the players who have chosen to play for clubs this side of the channel.


Lake and Faletau are good enough but I'd be surprised if Faletau gets picked over Conan and Lake would be up against Cowan-Dickie which I can't see happening. Blair Murray is probably 4th in the 15 pecking order behind Kinghorn, Heenan, Marcus Smith. He may be a better 15 than Smith but Smith brings versatility so would be ahead of him. Since Smith may go on tour as a 10/15 hybrid, they would already have 3 fullbacks in the squad so Murray won't make it, good player though.


Nicky Smith and Dafydd Jenkins clutching at straws.

3 Go to comments
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