Junior Kpoku: 'That wasn't down to me, it was all behind closed doors'
Unbelievable is a word that the delightfully giddy Junior Kpoku canโt stop himself from using over and over and over again when reflecting on his rumbustious, career-making year. Fresh out of Finborough School, the 18-year-old signed on the dotted line last August to serve his professional apprenticeship at Rob Baxterโs Exeter. The dramatic thing is, he wasnโt long packing up again in Devon and taking a giant October leap across the Channel. Stuart Lancasterโs Racing 92 had made an offer he couldnโt refuse, especially with a family illness unfolding.
Eight months later, he was striding across a hotel lobby in downtown Cape Town, giddy to tell RugbyPass about the wonder of it all, a double-jobbing spring where he made his Top 14 debut in a Parisian pack that included Siya Kolisi and also helped England U20s to impressively snatch Six Nations glory with a flourish down the road in Pau, the Pyrenees city that will be home for Kpokuโs older brother Joel in 2024/25.
Racing lost the derby at home in Kpokuโs French top-flight debut and they were beaten again the following week when he came off the bench at Bordeaux, but youโd never tell he was 0/2 in his 22-minute Top 14 involvement going by the enthusiastic nature of the lockโs bubbly patter.
โItโs beautiful,โ he beamed, describing the magnetism of the Top 14 with a huge smile. โCompared to the Premier League in the UK, itโs a whole different ball game. The physicality, the speed of it is much quicker. Physicality is unbelievable. It was over the moon when I was playing against Stade Francais at home, making my debut at home with mum and dad. It was unbelievable playing with big names in the Racing team and opposite us. It was unbelievable really.โ
Was he nervous? โ100 per cent, especially when you are waiting for Stuart to say, โGo on, Junior, youโre getting on nowโ. You go, โOkay, cool. Letโs go and get the job doneโ.โ Memories of what quickly unfolded remain vivid. โI got the ball down the wing, just legged it really and got tackled in the 22,โ he said before describing the subsequent involvement that was his welcome to the big time. โHaving (Sekou) Macalou run at me at full pace was oomph, he is a strong boy. I got him down, of course, but he is strong boy.โ
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You get the affirming sense that Kpoku can only rapidly develop given his grand surroundings, which include a stellar cast on and off the field. โSiya is a big role model to me personally and to the team with his voice,โ he said in praise of the South African double-winning Rugby World Cup captain.
โHe is unbelievable. Itโs like a dream come true playing with one of the best rugby players in the world. Winning back-to-back World Cups in unbelievable. Playing for the Springboks and playing at the Sharks (before that), he has just given me so many details into my clearouts, my lineouts, into tackling, carrying, all this stuff he has given me. I take it with two hands really.
โSome of it is more personal, itโs behind closed doors what he says really. But itโs a dream come true playing with him and his co-World Cup winner Trevor (Nyakane), Gael Fickou, Cameron (Woki), Henry Arundell, all these names. Itโs unbelievable. Itโs (about) taking it with two hands.โ
The unbelievables keep on coming. โHaving Stuart Lancaster, Yanick (Nyanga), Dimitri (Szarzewski), Freddie (Michalak), all these big names coaching us, is unbelievable. The amount of information they give you on and off the pitch to become a better rugby player is unbelievable.
โFreddie with his strike plays, how you are meant to run and if you are in defence, what you are reading when they are giving you a picture. And Dimitri in lineouts has given me the opportunity to better read the lineout and it helps what Iโm doing with England.
โItโs going to be really good to see what the team can do. Hopefully we can win the Top 14 next year. Next year we know we have got a lot of work to do, that is what our goal is really with all the players. Head down, try and win the Top 14. Thatโs the goal.
โI have signed for three years, going into my second year now and we will see what happens. Itโs unbelievable. Stuart has spoken to me what he wants to see in this World Cup and what he wants and expects from me when I get back into pre-season. Hopefully I can deliver and prove I can do the job for the team.
โMy French is really good. 100 per cent. Living with my dad and my mum is based in the UK. The people, the culture is much different to the UK as in everyone is more friendly. The rugby environment is more friendly. I donโt know how it is in the UK now because I was only in a professional environment at Exeter for three months, I didnโt really get the feel.
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โBut in Racing, everyone is on the same level. There isnโt any big dogs. Everyone just goes and sees the same physio unless you are espoir and you go and see a different physio. Everyone is on the same level really. So everyone is grounded, gets the work done really.โ
When he debuted for Exeter off their pre-season bench versus Bristol, calling Paris La Defense Arena his home was something unimaginable for Kpoku. โIt was due to the family really,โ he explained, taking up the story. โMy dad was really ill and my agent contacted me, โThere is a massive opportunity ahead of youโ.
โI wanted to see what the opportunity was and I took it with two hands and looked after my family. It was basically a family decision really. France wasnโt really on my mind when I went there to Exeter. It was mostly getting involved with England, playing my games with Exeter as it was a good club to be at.โ
The curious thing is that he is still permitted to be involved with England even though he is now based in France and already a first-team Top 14 player months before his 19th birthday in September. There have been multiple headlines about other players sacrificing their Test careers to take up offers in the French leagues.
Thereโs Jack Willis, for instance, the back-rower who capped his first season in France by added Top 14 glory on Friday night in Marseille to the Champions Cup title he had helped Toulouse to win last month. They are off-limits to Steve Borthwickโs squad due to the RFU regulation that you must be based in England in order to be selected at Test level.
A sensational debut hat-trick ??
Catch all the tries from our #WorldRugbyU20s campaign-opening victory over Los Pumitas, including a debut hat-trick from Jack Bracken ? pic.twitter.com/AI9UfGVhSn
โ England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) June 29, 2024
That restriction doesnโt apply at age-grade level, leaving Kpoku in the privileged position where he has been jumping on the train from Paris to London and hooking up with Mark Mapletoft England U20s squad. โThat wasnโt down to me,โ he said about the decision taken over his eligibility to play for his country despite Racing โ and not a Gallagher Premiership club โ paying his wages.
โIt was all behind closed doors, Iโve got nothing to do with that. I just still have the opportunity to play really. I donโt know. I take it with two hands, itโs a brilliant privilege to be still able to wear the England shirt even though I am based in France. I take it with two hands.โ
A Test rugby decision will surely come in time, though. โYeah, yeah, everyone asks me where do you see yourself, youโre playing U20s, are you getting involved in Steveโs team? Itโs a card probably on the table maybe. I just need to settle down, play my rugby and that will look after itself and we will see what happens in the near future.โ
Reflecting on his first year in France, Kpoku would recommend it as a pathway for fellow England youngsters. โ100 per cent. In the UK if you are singing at a club you need to make sure it is the right club for you. You know you are going to get some game time but I know in France you are in the espoirs and are playing every weekend at a good high level with pro players who havenโt got selected to play first team.
โThatโs one reason why I chose to go to France because I am playing every week with my club, not on loan to another club and when I come back to my club I need to learn and catch up (like in England). Everything at Racing is the same, from the first team to the espoirs, 18s, 17s, 16s, we all play the same rugby so it is just fluent when you step up.โ
"We haven't got a crystal ballโฆ"
โ England U20s head coach Mark Mapletoft on the potential for the Racing 92-based Junior Kpoku to play for France in the future. #EnglandRugby #ENGvIRE #U6N20 pic.twitter.com/XUp3UxD0ve
โ RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 6, 2024
It was rugby league where Kpoku took his first rugby steps. โIt started when I was about seven at London Skolars where Dave Roberts invited me and that is when my rugby took off. I was then invited to the Sarries when I got to 13 years old, that is when I got into their development programme stuff and that is when age-grade took over as well. At Skolars you could just fly into tackles really. It was lovely just flying into tackles, taking people out really. Thatโs what I loved and it has now taken me to where I am.
โThe U20s came a year early. I never thought of playing U20s. I just thought I was going to make it into 18s and see where my rugby takes me but this is unbelievable playing with the U20s and winning a Six Nations with them was unbelievable. Such a good group of boys here.
โIt was such a good game to play (in France in March). Everyone just unleashed themselves, as in everyone knew their roles, everyone just wanted to win. If we lose, weโre not winning the Six Nations. Everyone just had that mindset of keep going boys, weโre in this, we can win it and we won it. Unbelievableโฆ it just shows how much talent we have in our team and itโs interesting to see what we can do in a World Cup really.โ
Kpoku is a religious soul. โ100 per cent. He does everything, glory to him really. Glory to God. When we get to the stadium, for a good 10 minutes I start listening to him, praying and yeah, when itโs time to go out Iโm switched on and he is right behind me and looking after me.โ
The surest thing you can say about Kpoku is that he is a big boy. โAlways, always, always,โ he chuckled. โU13 I was probably a foot taller than everyone really. Heavy as well. I was a heavy boy. I was probably fat I think before I slimmed down into the professional environment. I remember walking on and everyone was just looking going, โWow, who the flip is that kid?โ It was unbelievable.โ
The is a limit to how gigantic he wants to become. โ121kgs this year has been the heaviest I have been. Stuart wants me around 124, 125, not just fat but as in more bigger,โ he said, describing his weight before referencing his height. โ204cm. Still growing. I want to stop at 205. I donโt want to be 7ft. No, no. 6ft 7โ, 6ft 8โ. Thatโs it.โ
Maro Itoje was his teenage role model. โWhen he plays for England and Sarries, the detail he brings into his lineouts and into his defence, his tackling, when he needs to get into a position, when he needs to run a line is unbelievable. That is where I want to try and be really, be better than his really.
โIโd see training with the Sarries team and everything and it was just like, โWow, what he is doing is unbelievableโ. He knows me because of my brothers. Every time my dad dropped my brothers off youโd see him walking and he would be like, โAlright, mateโ.โ
That dedication has rubbed off in the way Kpoku is brushing up on lineout detail in Cape Town. โI always come down when everyone is not here at around 11:30 (to the lobby) and I go to bed at 12 every day, that is my thing, I need to get my lineouts in my head. I am studying Argentina, getting their stuff in my head as I need to steal those balls.โ
It was perhaps in the head a bit too much as Kpoku was yellow carded in the second half at Athlone on Saturday but he quickly redeemed himself, making the breakdown steal that ignited the counter attack for Jack Brackenโs hat-trick try in Englandโs impressive 40-21 opening round win.
โI donโt like putting pressure on myself. I just take it day by day. You canโt really control the outcome. Something we do in camp is we grow the rose every day, we stick together. A brotherhood. Stick together when we are training; if we drop a ball or knock-on, we just bring each other together. That brings us closer.โ
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โ RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 26, 2024
What a nice bloke!