LONG READ 'The Truth' about Lucas Friday, the teenage England scrum-half prospect stunning team-mates in training

When you are referred to by your team-mates at Harlequins as ‘The Truth’, there is bound to be a good origin story. Lucas Friday doesn’t mind it, as nicknames go, but he also does not really know why it was given to him either.

“It came from Lennox Anyanwu, who was at Harlequins last year and is now at Montpellier. He came up with it pretty early when I came in, and I don’t really know why, you would have to ask him,” Friday, 19, tells RugbyPass.

Well, challenge accepted. A couple of messages later and having got hold of Anyanwu over WhatsApp, he provides an illuminating explanation, giving you an idea of the high regard the England Under-20s scrum-half is held in by his team-mates past and present who see him up close in training every day.

“He trained with us as a 17 year-old, and I noticed in training all the things young 9s normally aren’t great at, at that age he was more or less amazing at,” Anyanwu explains.

Naturally, when a prospect like Friday begins to stand out in training, word gets around. Will Joseph, then at Harlequins alongside Anyanwu, had not seen Friday in action and wanted to get Anyanwu’s take on what the scrum-half was like.

“I said ‘trust me he’s The Truth’. Will laughed at me, cause he always said I was dramatic, but I just kept calling him that for months on end, then everyone joined in.

And the meaning? “You can’t deny the truth and it always prevails. There are so many quotes about the truth you could use and they all match who he is as a player. The other reason I gave him that nickname is because he’s very humble, and he always used to be like ‘nah, not me’. Sometimes your teammates have to boast for you, if that makes sense.”

While reticent to let the Friday hype train reach top speed, there have certainly been enough glimpses to get excited about. Kevin Sorrell, Friday’s coach with the England U20s, brings up a moment in Harlequins’ recent win over La Rochelle.

Friday senior has been known as ‘Geezer’ forever, making ‘Geezer’ and ‘The Truth’ sound like the hip-hop duo you never knew you needed.

“I thought there was a massive moment when Marcus got the yellow card, away in a hostile environment, and just how calm and collected he was,” Sorrell explains. “That was another level to his personality and his play and what he can do.”

There is a bit of an edge to how Friday goes about his business. He was more than happy to let Wales’ Carwyn Leggatt-Jones know a few things after a 50:22 in last week’s comeback win in a monsoon, going on to win player of the match. That side to his game flashed up as well when Friday won a turnover for Harlequins in the win over the Stormers.

You will know Friday’s father, Mike, from his extensive coaching background in sevens with England, Kenya and the USA, more recently working in India and Fiji.

Friday senior has been known as ‘Geezer’ forever, making ‘Geezer’ and ‘The Truth’ sound like the hip-hop duo you never knew you needed. He commented on the 50:22 clip: “Bit of Souf East London spike too!!”

Friday senior helped to mentor Danny Care when the England scrum-half first arrived at Harlequins, with Care in turn then on hand to help Friday junior in the past few years as he came through the Harlequins academy. Such is rugby’s circle of life. Unsurprisingly, Care was one of Friday’s idols growing up, along with two other successful scrum-halves.

“I obviously knew Danny having watched him for a long time playing for Harlequins and looked up to him, how well he played and who he was. When I was in training I was trying to learn as much as possible from him, probably asking a lot of questions to see how I could develop. He helped a lot in that.

In terms of other nines, I quite liked Faf de Klerk. I see his sort of ferocious side that he brings out on the pitch. He’s not the biggest guy and I’m not either, but in terms of bringing that physicality.

“In terms of other nines, I quite liked Faf de Klerk. I see his sort of ferocious side that he brings out on the pitch. He’s not the biggest guy and I’m not either, but in terms of bringing that physicality, I look up to him. And also Aaron Smith’s passing is pretty good as well.” You can see De Klerk’s influence in that spikiness.

Friday’s passing game looks clean, too. Having a coach and former scrum-half as a parent seems to help in that regard. During Covid, when what else was there to do, father and son spent hours honing Friday’s passing skills in the back garden. “Work on passes, different drills that my dad used to do with Danny and a lot of other people. That helped me massively to get to where I am now.”

 

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A world champion with the U20s two years ago, big matches this season have accelerated his on-field education. Away to Leinster, up against Jamison Gibson-Park. That win in La Rochelle, facing a good No 9 in Thomas Berjon. “It’s taking lessons from the nines you are playing against, so Gibson-Park, Berjon, they have been really good the last few years. Learning from what they have done against us and has worked against us, adding stuff that they do into my game.”

There is a final side to Friday worth knowing about. Last February he tried to sidestep someone playing for England U20s against Scotland on the pitch at Newcastle’s Kingston Park and tore his ACL. Nine months of recovery. Helpfully, Friday senior and Lucas’s brother, Harrison, and also his girlfriend had all torn their ACLs in the past, so he knew what was coming.

“The support I was getting from everyone was incredible. It was a lot easier knowing that people I’m close to had gone through similar situations and come out better and better players. That gave me a lot of push to fight during that rehab stage.”

When he did return last November, off the bench in PREM, as Sorrell adds, “it didn’t look like he’d been out for that length of time”.

The foundations seem to be in place for Friday to develop into a highly-accomplished player, one who at a young age seems unfazed by hostile away crowd like England will experience in Edinburgh this week.

Harlequins would no doubt love to lock him in for the next decade and beyond. They already know the truth.