Some people are destined from day one to play international rugby for England. Others owe their selection to an injury crisis or simply get lucky. And then, in a totally different category, there is Steve Borthwick’s latest new cap, a player whose unlikely journey to the top has required inspirational levels of resilience and fortitude.
To describe the persevering Emmanuel Iyogun’s debut off the bench in Argentina in July as hard earned is to put it mildly. At times the Spain-born son of Nigerian immigrants has had to show immense levels of determination, just as his parents had predicted. You might not get the privileges that some people get initially.’ So when you get told no or something doesn’t go your way, you just have to keep working.
There isn’t any argument about it.’” In Iyogun’s case, a can-do attitude has been consistently required since Northampton spotted him playing in Essex, where his mum was working as a nurse. Back then he was a teenage No 8, having previously played centre at Basildon RFC. Northampton’s head of academy, Mark Hopley, thought the strapping young hopeful would prosper in the front row but not all his teammates were convinced.
So it’s quite funny that my job description now is mainly cleaning rucks.” Hopley persevered, though, and invited Iyogun to switch to the front row for an under-18s game against Leinster. I was going backwards at a rate of knots, it was one of the worst games I’ve ever played. But we had a meeting afterwards and he [Hopley] highlighted my character.
Even when I was getting dished up at every scrum, I was still fighting. I think he kept me in for that personality trait rather than my propping ability.” Fast forward a few months in 2020 and Northampton’s first team had an injury crisis. The fledgling prop was unexpectedly pitched into an East Midlands derby against Leicester and was then required to start a Champions Cup quarter-final at Exeter the following week.
He performed so valiantly in adversity that even England’s watching coach Eddie Jones could be seen applauding from the stands. It got me to a point where, at 19, I was able to go into a quarter-final and survive.” He is also the type to take a punt, not least a couple of years ago when he decided to try to consult South Africa’s scrummaging colossus Ox Nché for a few tips. I found out he wasn’t staying too far away so I messaged him out of the blue on Instagram saying, ‘Do you mind if we have a catchup?’ I just wanted to talk scrums.” To Nché’s credit he kindly agreed.
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