Young Guns – Josh Mann

Beefy prop Josh Mann is using Asher Opoku-Fordjour’s rise to Test level as an inspiration for his own journey inside the England pathway having joined Mark Mapletoft’s England U20s group after progressing with flying colours through the U18s.

At 5ft 11ins and just shy of 20 stone, Exeter loosehead Mann packs a punch and is hoping his carrying stands out enough for the 18-year-old to earn Six Nations and World Championship appearances this year.

Mann told The Rugby Paper: “Coming into this environment you definitely notice a step up in intensity but it’s similar fundamentals around the philosophies of speed, attachment and space.

“Carrying is the strongest part of my game and an area I’m looking to implement on the U20s. It gets us across the gain line and I’m often able to see past the defender, get an offload in or a quick snap back to allow us good speed of ball.

“My biggest work on is around my agility. I’m trying to get better at coming around the corner and not counter-rucking all the time as I often get drawn into rucks.”

Versatile Sale front row Opoku-Fordjour played a pivotal part in England U20s’ historic Six Nations and World Championship double last year and has since made his senior debut against Japan aged just 20.

Mann is hoping he can follow a similar path to earn senior honours but knows he has a lot of work to do before then. He said: “It’s a massive inspiration seeing someone like that. He’s not far off my age, only a couple of years older than me. It’s fired me up to try and have the same journey he’s enjoyed.”

Mann fell in love with rugby while playing U7s for Cornish Pirates and hasn’t looked back. Having enjoyed his time in Jonathan Pendlebury’s U18s and playing BUCS Super Rugby for Exeter University, Mann is hoping to make his Chiefs debut in the short-term.

He added: “With the U18s, we went on tour to Italy for the Six Nations and won every game. It was a huge experience, one of the best I’ve had so far in my career.

“The environment at Exeter is really welcoming. They allow us to go to university alongside it, I’m currently studying sports science alongside being a full-time rugby player. It’s great that they allow me a back up if anything bad happens, like a serious injury. The university has a very tight-knit system with the Chiefs, there are constantly coaches coming in to check up on our games. I remember going into pre-season and Ehren Painter would help me after training to do extra scrum work and drills with me. He was basically teaching me some of his moves. Then I’d go into scrum training and the scrum coach would be like, ‘oh you’re looking way better’. They’ve helped me a lot.

“I’ve been playing Super BUCS since the start of the year. The first game against Loughborough I was scrummaging against a 23/24-year-old.

“I was certainly thrown in the deep end, but I held my own and got man of the match which I was happy with. I’d like to get a Premiership Cup appearance in the next year or two, that’s one of my biggest aims alongside getting some England U20s caps.”