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'A human being just like me': Kpoku savours Etzebeth head to head

(Photo by James Chance/Getty Images)

One-time England prospect Joel Kpoku can’t wait to tackle Springboks talisman Eben Etzebeth when their paths cross in this Friday night’s European Challenge Cup final between Lyon and Toulon in Marseille.  Etzebeth went head to head in the May 14 semi-final with Maro Itoje, the Saracens and England player that Kopku is often likened to.

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Having been man of the match in the semi-final win over Wasps, Kpoku now gets his chance with Lyon to battle against the Springboks forward in an eagerly awaited cup final at Stade Velodrome. Asked about the clash of the respective No4s, Kpoku said in a feature-length RugbyPass interview ahead of the final:  “It’s one where I can’t go into a shell. He is a human being just like me

“I know he has achieved amazing things in his career but at the same time when we are on that park he is the opposition so for me, it is concentrating on myself and not focusing too much on what I have opposite me in Etzebeth.”

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Eben Etzebeth | Rugby Roots

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Eben Etzebeth | Rugby Roots

A star at the 2018 Junior World Cup, Eddie Jones involved Kpoku at England training camps but his club career at Saracens didn’t reach expected heights as he fell down the selection pecking order and was also involved in the Barbarians’ game-cancelling farce in October 2020.   

Lyon, though, snapped up Kpoku last November and he is now set to feature in a European final just six months later. “Pierre (Mignoni) has been following me since the 2018 World Cup final.

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“He was looking at me from then on and tried to pick me up two years ago but I had already resigned, but he managed to pick me up in November and got his hands on me,” explained Kpoku when asked how the moved to France came about. 

“I asked my agent if there were there any teams in England interested. He came back and I think he said Bath but I was like, I didn’t really want to go to Bath. Nothing against them, so then Lyon came about and I spoke to my close ones, my parents and my family, and they said you might as well go for it.”

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N
NB 32 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

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