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Two key reasons behind Asher Opoku-Fordjour’s England elevation

BAGSHOT, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 04: Asher Opoku-Fordjour looks on during the England training session held at Pennyhill Park on November 04, 2024 in Bagshot, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

England U20 head coach Mark Mapletoft has praised Asher Opoku-Fordjour’s versatility and selflessness after the young prop was called into Steve Borthwick’s senior squad.

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Opoku-Fordjour was added to the squad on Sunday night, along with Bath lock Charlie Ewels, as England regathered to prepare to face Australia at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

The 20-year-old has been used primarily as a tighhead at club level – his five senior starts for Sale Sharks all coming in the No.3 jersey – but mainly lined up on the opposite side of the front row under Mapletoft.

It was in the No.1 jersey that he starred in England’s triumphant U20 Six Nations and World Rugby U20 Championship campaigns this year, and it is at loosehead that he could earn full international honours having come in for the retired Joe Marler.

“The thing that’s impressed me the most about Asher is, you know, he’s a quiet guy, he gets on with his business, but being able to play both sides at the level he’s played [is impressive],” said Mapletoft, who will coach England A against Australia A later this month.

“He was bouncing from playing tighthead at club to coming in to play loosehead for us. Now, there was an element of selfishness for the team in that regard, because we had good tightheads as well.

“We had Billy Sela, we had Jimmy Halliwell, we had Afolabi [Fasogbon] coming back from injury. So, the fact that he was able to park his own personal interests to do what was right for the team was amazing.”

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As a former fly-half, Mapletoft admits that front-row play is the area of the game he knows least about.

However, he describes Opoku-Fordjour’s ability to play loosehead and tighthead as a “great attribute” and believes he could have a long career at the highest level.

Since starting his senior career in the early-1990s, Mapletoft says he has watched props evolve from being “technicians who knew the time of day” into players who use their physicality.

“Life’s experiential so you pick up those opportunities, you learn little things along the way. The more you play, the better you get,” he added, when asked about Opoku-Fordjour’s potential.

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“Some of these lads are huge men and therefore they’re able to hold their own at a young age just physically without necessarily learning all the tricks of the trade.

“If you can combine the two over a period of time, then that’s quite exciting, isn’t it?

“The reality of rugby is you need a scrum. It won’t win you the game, but it makes it awfully difficult to win if you don’t have one.”

England A are due to play their Australian counterparts at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday, November 17.

Mapletoft will name his squad for the match on Wednesday and is expected to select a mix of experience and youth, with several players who excelled under him at U20 level potentially getting a chance to impress.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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