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Northampton Saints land major coup in England U20s star Kpoku

Joel Kpoku celebrates with the England U20 side, although it might not be long before he's doing the same with the seniors. (Getty Images)

Northampton Saints have carried off a significant coup in nailing down the signing of highly-rated Saracens secondrow Joel KpokuRugbyPass has learned.

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At 20-years-old the 6’5, 126kg Kpoku already cuts an imposing physical presence and has featured heavily for Saracens Storm, as well as earning 9 caps for Saracens’ senior team to date.
Known for hard carries and equally hard defensive hits, the Newham born forward was shortlisted for the Premiership Rugby Cup Breakthrough Player awared in April.

Despite his abundant abilities – that have seen the academy star feature for England U20s for two seasons running – his playing time is limited at the North London club. The giant secondrow currently sits behind England locks Maro Itoje, George Kruis and Nick Isiekwe, as well as towering Wallaby secondrow Will Skelton.

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RugbyPass understands he has signed a long term contract with Northampton Saints and that his salary will be a multiple of the academy contract he currently commands at Sarries.

Kpoku will make the journey north to Saints for the 2020/21 season.

The lock made a scoring senior debut for the Men in Black against Leicester Tigers in the Premiership Rugby Cup and also dotted down on his first Premiership outing in November 2018 against Sale Sharks.

Kpoku was a key component in Storm’s run to the Premiership Rugby Shield title. His brother Jonathan – who’s also a lock – is also currently at Saracens.

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A mainstay in the England Under-20s side, Kpoku made his international bow against the Junior Springboks and has since represented his country at two U20 World Rugby Championships.

The powerful forward was a surprise call up to a full England training camp in August 2018.

Sam Smith Reporter and All Blacks legend Justin Marshall conduct a survey of the many sandwiches on offer in Tokyo. From Lawsons to Family Mart, and on to the 711, there’s a tremendous breadth of choice on offer for Rugby World Cup fans. Boomfa!

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Bull Shark 4 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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