LONG READ Tyler Offiah: The budding actor and legend's son who wants to 'complete rugby'

At eight years old, blinking back tears, Tyler Offiah cast an envious glance at his new holiday mates cavorting around the hotel complex. He couldn’t understand why he was on the grass, with his father and a rugby ball, instead of joining the fun. He couldn’t fathom the dedication and standards being drilled into him even at such a tender age. He didn’t know these childhood sessions would propel his rise to a professional career, or help his younger brother Phoenix earn a place in the Tottenham Hotspur football academy.

He did know his dad was a legend. Martin ‘Chariots’ Offiah is one of the finest players in rugby league history, his legacy enshrined in a bronze statue outside Wembley.

“Since I was two, I’ve been chucking a ball about and my dad was one of my coaches,” Offiah says. “I’ve always associated him with rugby.

“Demetrious Johnson, the UFC fighter, said his kids had no idea why he was famous because he has no pictures of himself fighting in his house. My house is exactly the opposite – all the way up the stairs there are pictures of my dad playing and his framed shirts. He’s got his own little shrine going.”

Today, on the week of his 20^th birthday and in Junior World Championship action with England U20s, Offiah harbours the loftiest of ambitions. Shattering his country’s try-scoring record. Touring with the British and Irish Lions. Even becoming a Hollywood actor. Twelve years ago, on his family trip to Ibiza, the endgame was impossible to grasp.

“My dad wanted the best for me and my little brother but he’d admit he was very pushy. It’s got me to where I am now so I am very grateful for it.

“We have family friends in Ibiza and used to go there quite a lot. We’d be in an all-inclusive. You know, you make friends, go and play games together. He’d say ‘you’re not allowed to go and play games until you’ve done this, this and this’. I see the other kids all playing, I’d be over on the pitches and he’d be saying ‘not until you’ve done 10 left-footed kicks’. I’m not left footed, I’m eight, I’m s**t. There were times I’d be crying.

“You understand as you get older it’s all for the best. It’s got to me to where I am now so I am very grateful for it. It felt like too much at times but he always said I’d thank him one day. His favourite phrase was ‘you’ll either say I’m happy this is my dad or I wish I listened to my dad’. I’m in the ‘I’m happy this is my dad’ situation.”

Offiah is as introspective as he is ambitious. He tells a story about the trippy nature of age-grade rugby. “One week I was playing at school with my 16-year-old fly-half Ben Smythe and my next game was for Bath against Munster with Finn Russell at fly-half. The jump between those two people alone is quite funny to think about the difference in level.”

His candour extends to an elusive quest for consistency, and to understand the oscillations in his own performance. He feels he needs a setback to trigger his best stuff and is trying to figure out why. For Offiah’s talent is obvious. He was given the nickname ‘Tryler’ at school, with his 6ft 3ins frame, springy gait and powerful concoction of athleticism and skill on the wing. He won a contract at Bath and scored a try on his Prem debut at the StoneX last summer. But he hasn’t played a league game since; hasn’t made himself a go-to man at the top level like his old England teammate Noah Caluori, nor decisively nailed down a berth in the U20s team.

I am still working through that now. You’d think with all the pushing I’ve had from when I was young, I wouldn’t have those problems.

“There have definitely been ebbs and flows with me,” he says. “I’ve been doing really well, then hitting that plateau and coasting and waiting for a ‘down’ to cause the next ‘up’. I was talking about this recently in our backs meeting where ‘Parky’ [assistant coach Will Parkin] has us show three pics of ourselves, talk about them and get us to grow closer together.

“There were times at school when I thought I was doing well and eased off a bit and then didn’t get picked to go to South Africa with England U18s. That was the dip which sparked me to do as well as I did the following year and secure a contract with Bath. I almost let that plateau a bit, I didn’t play as much U20s last year as I wanted to, and then I pushed on and made my Prem debut. Even now, I didn’t have the greatest warm-up game against Italy and didn’t get selected against Ireland in our first World Championship game.

“It’s quite humbling to say that in a group where the other people are the ones playing over me. I had to take a step back and look at why that’s happening. It’s never me versus them, it’s how we can get better together. I am still working through that now. You’d think with all the pushing I’ve had from when I was young, I wouldn’t have those problems.”

Offiah ponders aloud whether his father identified these traits right from the off. Where Phoenix was boisterous and cheeky, Offiah followed rules and had a more placid temperament. Maybe that edge was what ‘Chariots’ wanted to coax out of his elder boy. Or maybe those harsh early lessons did not have the desired mental effect.

Offiah has spoken to sports psychologists, including Bath’s in-house specialist the players have dubbed ‘Grow’. He is mature enough and diligent enough to put his problems under a microscope.

“I have always been very laid back and I think my dad was trying to light that fire under me to get me to be as good as he knew I could be.

“Nothing individually is wrong. If your kicking or your passing is bad, it’s a lot easier to fix. But it’s fluctuations in performance, and it’s harder to identify the factor causing it.

“The basketball player Michael Beasley has a lot of insightful ways of thinking. One of the quotes I like is ‘if you know why you lost, you did it on purpose’. If you lost because you didn’t spend as much time training or you could have done your extras and you didn’t. In this case I don’t think I am losing on purpose. If I knew why it was happening, I’d learn how to stop it. I’m trying to find what’s causing those flickers and then make sure I drill into it.

“I’m still fairly young and I’ve got time but my dad likes to put it like this: ‘if you have a good career, you’ve probably got 10 more years’. So I can’t be spending too long trying to figure it out.”

Most young players keep their goals private. Offiah chooses to share his. Why shy away from the stuff every kid dreams about? Why suppress one’s ambition for fear of being labelled cocky? Offiah is ballsy, yes, but not arrogant. He puts his targets out there to be chased without understating the work required to attain them.

For me, try-scoring is why I play rugby, so my aim is those records in the Prem and for England. If I was able to achieve that, it would be a ‘completed rugby’ kind of moment

“First I want to become the starting winger for Bath, kick on to the England squad and become an England starter. I want to become a British and Irish Lion. For me, try-scoring is why I play rugby, so my aim is those records in the Prem and for England. If I was able to achieve that, it would be a ‘completed rugby’ kind of moment.”

Away from the game, Offiah is a studious type. He earned top A-level grades in maths and economics and is pursuing a degree in politics and international relations. He also adores film. He has a cinema subscription and sees a picture at least once a week. He watches the classics with his father, who recently introduced him to The Sopranos. Offiah’s godfather, Chris, is an acting coach and he has dipped his toe into the world of performing. A post-rugby career as a thespian is very much on the radar.

“Rugby is not forever. It’ll be done in my early 30s and I’m not the kind of guy who will go into coaching. There will be a lot more life left than the time I’ll have spent playing rugby. What do I want to do? Nothing is out of bounds. People think as soon as they get to a certain age, it’s too late to start something. I could start something at 30, and get to a point where I’m good at it before I’m 40.

“My top films are Interstellar, Django Unchained, Whiplash and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. That’s a rogue one. I love the Planet of the Apes – incredible films. The Dark Knight is another. Inception, I love Christopher Nolan. My favourite actors are Denzel Washington, Timothee Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey.

“I’m not gonna pop up in a Hollywood film next year. I mentioned it because I think it’s good for people to have hobbies which aren’t in rugby so you can get away. The types of people I meet in acting sessions are so different to the people I meet in rugby. It’s very easy to get tied into tunnel vision in rugby.”

Sharp focus is required now as England seek a return to the summit of U20s rugby. They were three from five in the Six Nations, but avenged their February loss to Ireland with a high-scoring World Championship opener in Tbilisi.

“Everyone is happy with a bonus point win but it was too close for comfort,” Offiah says. “They make a few more conversions, one person finishes instead of the ball being placed on a foot and suddenly you’ve lost. It wasn’t like our game plan banged and we’re flying.

“A lot of the things we’ve looked at are very easily fixable, which is good. Our plan works. It’s just the small things make such a big difference as you go higher and higher up the levels.”

Offiah sat the game out, and will see his first action of the tournament against USA on Thursday. England’s meeting with Argentina five days later will likely decide the pool, and progression to the semi-finals. Offiah longs to play a telling part; benevolent but once again, unabashed in his desire.

“I just hope I can really take this opportunity and show what I can do, prove myself and be selected against Argentina. All games are equal but the odds say that’ll be more of an even game. If we keep winning and keep playing how we know we can, I’d love to be the starting winger and top try-scorer for our team and win that final.”