Bath and England under 20 hooker Kepu Tuipulotu is the next big name coming out of his family. Father Sione was a Tonga international and sister Sisilia currently plays as a prop for Wales, while his cousin Carwyn plies his trade in the Top 14 with Pau.
Being surrounded by rugby from such a young age means that the hooker lives and breathes the sport. With a week off from England U20 duty, he spoke about what he got up to during the break.
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He said: “I got Thursday off last week. But I was back in Bath training. Just helping the lads out with the Prem Cup. We had a big game against Bristol. So just doing my bit to help the team prepare for Bristol away.
“I can’t just stay in my room and do nothing, or chill. I think that comes with age. I had Thursday off and Friday. I was supposed to have Friday off. But I asked the boss if I can jump into, the non-23 session on the Friday. Rugby is such a big part of my life. I just want to do as much as I can. But then, the older lads are like, ‘Oh, I’d love for two days off’. But I’m just so keen to get involved.”
With a family who are so focused on the sport, he spoke about whether this ability to never want to stop comes from his upbringing. Tuipulotu said: “ It probably does, in terms of, because there’s a rugby ball in our house, 24/7. So, rugby is all we did for fun, even off the field. So yeah, I feel like just having that ability, with my dad and my sister playing does have that eagerness to play.”
With his sister playing for Wales and Kepu playing for England, split loyalties are bound to arise when the two nations face each other.
The hooker explained that it is all friendly and spoke about the dynamics of having two siblings playing for two different nations.
“She came down to the game against France last week, she’s, she’s quite a Wales die hard. She supports me in what I do. But she bites her teeth when she comes and supports me when I’m putting the rose on.”
Born in Pontypool in Wales but educated in England, he was a real coup for the England national setup, joining at under-18 level a couple of years ago.
Tuipulotu shared a story about his sister turning up to his under 18s debut and went on to explain whether he sometimes supports the country of his birth.
“It’s quite funny when I’m in my debut for the under 18s against Wales. She pulled up in her full Welsh stash, supporting Wales, will also support me. That does transfer onto when I’m supporting her. I support her and sometimes I support Wales, sometimes I don’t.”
Hooker’s aren’t the first position people think about when it comes to scoring tries, but the Bath man has a knack for scoring on debut’s, with a score in his England u20 debut
More remarkably, in his first Prem Rugby Cup game, he scored a hat trick against Ampthill.
Speaking about what his prep is like going into his first game, he said: “I do get pumped up for debuts, especially my Prem debut, I was pretty pre pumped up to go and have my first run out for Bath . So I feel like that just adds to the fire.
“Sometimes people get, like, shelled into their debuts. I try and embrace it all in terms of, the coaches have their trust in me, that’s why they picked me. So now I’ve got to go and give my all for the coaches and my team.”
Having played in various competitions, including the Premiership, Champions Cup, Prem Rugby Cup and u20 Six Nations, speed of play and intensity was described as the main difference when going up through the levels.
Having to adapt quickly is a huge challenge when making a debut, the hooker spoke about how he adjusted to the increased speed.
“I feel like you’ve got to stay in the moment. In terms of, when I first went out in a Champions Cup, I had like 20 minutes, and I felt like the first five minutes, I just adapted to the game. And then when you feel that you’ve adapted to it, you can just adapt to it.
“When it comes to, like, when I had my turn against Northampton, I could adapt quicker than I did when I when I was making my Champions Cup debut, because I’ve already done it. I feel like it just once that first initial hit comes then the second it feels like you can get into that gear. You know, you can shift gears quite easily.”
Looking ahead to the Scotland game on Friday at Kingston Park, the preparation that the team has made was spoken about.
“We’ve got loads of respect for Scotland, so we’ve done our homework today. But, today was just based about what we can do against Scotland, rather than focusing on Scotland. Today was more like how we can exploit Scotland and how we can go into the game with as large a voltage as we can take.”
